JOHNA.SEAVERNS 


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Fox  Hunting 


IN   DELAWARE   COUNTY,   PENNSYLVANIA 


AND 


ORIGIN  AND  HISTORY 


OF 


The  Rose  Tree  Fox  Hunting  Club* 


Dedicated  to  the  Club  by 

GEO.  E.  DARLINGTON 

one  of  its  first  members 


May  JO,  I90t. 


Franklin  Prikting  Company, 

514-520  Ludlow  Strebt, 

Philadelphia. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FOX    HUNTING. 

If  any  there  are  interested  in  fox  hunting 
who  have  the  idea  that  it  is  a  sport  of  compar- 
atively recent  origin  in  this  country,  it  is  well  to 
disabuse  their  minds  of  this  great  error,  for  it  is 
well  authenticated  by  history  that  the  English  and 
French  people  who  first  became  settlers  in 
America  brought  the  love  of  this  sport  with  them 
from  Great  Britain  and  France,  where  it  had  been 
the  pastime  of  English,  Irish,  and  French  gentle- 
men from  very  early  ages.  Many  of  the  bravest 
and  most  daring  of  the  officers  of  the  Continental 
army  during  the  American  Revolution  had  been 
trained  in  horsemanship  and  courage  by  fox 
hunting.  The  Quaker  settlers  of  Pennsylvania, 
no  doubt,  had  a  prejudice  against  it  in  the  earher 
days,  but  the  farmers  among  them  soon  learned 
to  look  upon  the  sport  with  a  friendly  submis- 
sion, as  it  was  taken  up  by  those  in  the  common- 
wealth who  were  disposed  to  follow  the  hounds, 
and  at  an  early  date  there  were  quite  a  few  of 
these.  Bayard  Taylor  opens  his  excellent  Story 
of  Kennett  with  a  bag  hunt  at  the  old  Barton 
farm  near  Kennett  Square  in  1796,  and  he  says: 

5 


6  FOX    HUNTING. 

"The  chase  was  an  old  EngHsh  pastime  that  had 
been  kept  up  in  the  neighborhood  of  Kennett, 
from  the  force  of  habit,  and  under  the  depres- 
sion which  the  strong  Quaker  element  among 
the  people  exercised  upon  all  sports  and  recrea- 
tions." 

GENERAL  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  AS  A 
FOX  HUNTER, 

In  Washington  After  the  Revolution,  by  Wil- 
liam Spohn  Baker,  which  is  compiled  from  Wash- 
ington's public  and  private  papers,  we  find  that 
at  Mt.  Vernon,  after  the  Revolutionary  War, 
he  enjoyed  fox  hunting  and  frequently  indulged 
in  it  in  hunting  season,  and  his  description  of  the 
runs  with  the  hounds,  taken  from  his  diary,  ap- 
peals to  the  old  fox  hunter  who  remembers  the 
hunting  of  years  ago,  when  the  hounds  were 
hunted  by  the  horsemen  who  rode  with  them,  and 
not  by  a  master  of  hounds  with  his  employed 
huntsman  and  whippers-in.  An  entry  from 
Washington's  diary  of  December  12th,  1785,  de- 
scribes a  run  as  follows : 

"After  an  early  breakfast,  George  Washing- 
ton, Mr.  Shaw,  and  myself  went  into  the  woods 
back  of  Muddy  Hole  plantation  a-hunting,  and 
were  joined  by  Mr.  Lund  Washington  and  Mr. 
William    Peake.       About    half    after    10    o'clock 


FOX    HUNTING.  ^ 

(being  first  plagued  with  dogs  running  hogs)  we 
found  a  fox  near  Col.  Mason's  plantation  on 
Little  Hunting  Creek,  having  followed  on  his 
drag  more  than  half  a  mile,  and  run  him  with  8 
dogs  (the  other  4  getting,  as  was  supposed,  after 
a  second  fox)  close  and  well  for  an  hour — when 
the  dogs  came  to  a  fault  and  to  cold  hunting  20 
minutes  after  12,  when  being  joined  by  the  miss- 
ing dogs  they  put  him  up  afresh  and  in  about  50 
minutes  killed  up  in  an  open  field  of  Col. 
Mason's  —  every  rider  and  every  dog  being 
present  at  the  death." 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  that  even  the  great 
Washington  was  content  tO'  follow  a  pack  of 
twelve  hounds,  and  could  get  a  good  run  and  a 
death  out  of  them. 

Under  date  of  October  27th,  1787,  Wash- 
ington's diary  contains  this  entry:  "Went  to  the 
woods  back  of  Muddy  Hole  with  the  hounds — 
unkennelled  2  foxes  and  dragged  others  but 
caught  none — the  dogs  running  wildly  and  being 
under  no  command." 

And  under  date  of  November  29th,  1787,  he 
says:  "In  company  with  Col.  Humphreys,  Maj. 
Washington  and  Mr.  Lear,  went  a-hunting,  found 
a  fox  near  the  Pincushion — run  him  hard  for  near 
3  quarters  of  an  hour  and  then  lost  him."  De- 
cember 5th.  1787,  he  says  they  went  out  with  the 


8  FOX    HUNTING. 

hounds  after  breakfast,  "took  the  drag  of  a  fox  on 
the  side  of  Hunting  Creek  near  the  Cedar  gut, 
carried  it  through  Muddy  Hole  plantation  into 
the  woods  back  of  it  and  lost  it  near  the  Main 
Road."  And  on  December  8th,  of  same  year,  he 
says:  "Went  a-hunting  after  breakfast;  about 
noon  found  a  fox,  which  the  dogs  run  for  some 
time  in  woods  through  which  there  was  no  fol- 
lowing them,  so  whether  they  caught  or  lost  it 
is  uncertain."  The  diary  also  shows  hunts  on 
December  22d,  26th,  and  28th,  of  same  year,  with 
only  a  short  run  on  the  last  day.  Under  date  of 
February  2d,  1789,  the  diary  has  this  entry:  "On 
my  way  home  met  Mr.  George  Calvert  on  his 
way  to  Arlington  with  the  hounds  I  had  lent  him, 
viz.  Vulcan  &  Venus  (from  France)  Ragman  & 
2  other  dogs  (from  England)  Dutchess  &  Doxey 
(from  Philadelphia)  Tryal,  Jupiter  &  Countess 
(descended  from  the  French  hounds)." 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  that  the  Virginia 
hounds  were  crossed  with  EngHsh  and  French 
strains  of  blood,  and  that  Philadelphia  hunters 
had  a  stock  of  hounds  that  Washington  was 
pleased  to  have  in  his  pack. 

This  diary  shows  fully  the  pleasure  Washing- 
ton took  in  hunting,  and  that  it  was  enough  of 
an  event  in  his  life  to  be  entered  in  the  records 
of  it. 


FOX    HUNTING.  9 

General  Washington  was  born  on  February 
22d,  1732,  so  that  he  was  fifty-five  years  of  age 
when  he  was  still  riding  vigorously  to  hounds  and 
keeping  the  diary  of  his  hunts.  From  Washing- 
ton Irving's  Life  of  General  Washington  we  learn 
that  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  was  tall,  athletic, 
and  manly  for  his  years,  and  that  he  became  the 
hunting  companion  of  Lord  Fairfax,  who  was  a 
staunch  fox  hunter  and  kept  horses  and  hounds 
in  the  English  style — that  he  found  Washington 
to  be  as  bold  as  himself  in  the  saddle  and  as  eager 
to  follow  the  hounds;  aiid  that  it  was  probably 
under  the  tuition  of  this  hard  riding  old  noble- 
man that  the  youthful  Washington  imbibed  that 
fondness  for  the  chase  for  which  he  was  after- 
wards remarked. 


CHAPTER   II. 

RED    FOXES. 

The  red  fox  hunted  in  the  Atlantic  States, 
in  which  English,  Irish,  or  French  gentlemen 
first  settled,  who  were  lovers  of  the  hunting 
sport,  was  probably  brought  here  by  them,  with 
the  fox  hounds,  that  they  might  indulge  in  this  in- 
vigorating and  exciting  pastime  on  horseback,  as 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  in  the  old  country. 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania  seem  to  be 


10  FOX    HUNTING. 

the  first  States  into  which  fox  hunting  was  first 
introduced,  and  these  States  still  hold  their  places 
as  leading  States  for  the  sport. 

Some  zoologists  claim  that  the  red  fox 
{Vulpes  Pennsylvaniciis)  probably  covers  the  whole 
of  North  America,  but  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  are  hardly  found  south  of  the  Caro- 
linas;  and  that  this  American  red  fox  is  very 
similar  to  the  European  fox;  that  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  this  fox  was  ever  introduced  here  in 
any  large  numbers,  and  that  towards  the  South  it 
gets  scarce  and  is  replaced  by  the  gray  fox. 

This  merely  throws  a  doubt  upon  the  intro- 
duction of  our  swift-running  red  fox  from  Europe, 
originally;  but  it  certainly  is  a  well-known  fact 
among  old  fox  hunters  that  foxes  from  any  other 
part  of  the  country  than  the  low  counties  of 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  and  per- 
haps North  Carolina,  are  not  of  the  same  build 
as  the  bright  red  colored,  long-legged,  active, 
sw^ift-running,  and  long-winded  Pennsylvania  fox 
that  was  hunted  here  in  years  gone  by.  And 
another  fact  is  well  known,  that  the  red  fox  is  a 
very  prolific  breeder,  and  might  in  years  extend 
its  species  all  over  these  States  at  least. 

The  gray  fox  is  said  to  range  across  the 
country  south  of  the  red  fox,  and  both  species 
occur  together  on  the  extremes  of  their  range. 


FOX    HUNTING.  II 

l)ut  that  the  gray  fox  does  not  extend  much  north 
of  southern  Pennsylvania,  and  even  there  it  is 
scarce.  On  the  Pacific  coast  it  reaches  Oregon. 
Some  zoologists  consider  the  Pacific  coast  form 
to  be  distinct  (F.  Calif ornicus)  with  various  sub- 
species. 

The  black,  silver,  and  coon  foxes  are  not 
considered  as  distinct  specific  forms.  We  do  not 
find  any  form  but  the  red  fox  in  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania. 

The  gray  fox  is  a  poor  runner  as  compared 
with  the  red  fox,  but  can  climb  a  tree  like  a 
coon. 

PUPPY     RUN     AFTER     A     GRAY     FOX. 

Within  a  recent  period  one  of  the  members 
of  the  Rose  Tree  Club  having  been  presented 
with  a  gray  fox,  brought  him  in  his  box  to  the 
<:lub-house,  and  it  was  decided  to  train  three  of 
the  eight-months-old  hound  puppies  on  him,  that 
had  never  scented  a  fox.  The  puppies  and 
the  fox  were  taken,  by  the  few  members  who 
happened  to  be  present,  to  a  neighboring  field, 
where  the  fox  was  turned  from  his  box,  after  the 
puppies  had  been  induced  to  smell  at  him  and 
had  been  badly  frightened  by  the  growl  of  the 
fox.  The  fox,  when  released,  instead  of  running 
ol¥,    boldly   walked    toward    the    assembled    club 


12  FOX    HUNTING. 

men,  and  the  puppies  put  tail  between  legs  and 
sneaked  to  the  rear;  nor  could  they  be  induced  to 
face  the  fox.  After  a  great  clapping  of  hands 
and  shouting,  the  fox  was  finally  frightened  into 
a  run  across  country,  and  the  puppies,  getting 
wind  of  the  scent,  started  on  the  trail  under  full 
cry.  The  hunters,  on  foot,  followed,  with  the 
Master  of  Hounds,  Mr.  George  W.  Hill,  and  the 
Huntsman,  "Doc."  Rogers,  in  the  lead,  across 
two  large  fields,  where  the  puppies  were  found  to 
be  at  fault  and  the  fox  out  of  sight  and  lost.  After 
a  fruitless  search  "Doc."  Rogers  was  sent  to  the 
kennel  for  an  old,  worn-out  hound  to  find  the 
track  for  the  puppies.  One  of  the  hunters,  hap- 
pening to  look  up  a  large  chestnut  tree,  near  the 
fence,  saw  the  fox  perched  on  a  low  limb,  sup- 
porting himself  by  a  fore  leg  over  it  as  a  per- 
son would  hook  an  arm  above  the  elbow,  and 
gazing  down  on  us  in  the  most  unconcerned  man- 
ner. It  took  some  time  to  induce  him  to  quit 
his  hold  and  come  to  the  ground,  but  when  he 
did  he  started  off  for  a  piece  of  woodland  in  fine 
running  shape.  Then  the  puppies  had  to  be 
hunted  up,  and  "Doc."  arriving  with  his  old 
hound,  all  were  put  on  the  trail,  and  made  a  fine 
run  under  full  cry,  through  the  wood,  over  a 
ploughed  field,  across  sod,  and  over  into  and 
through  the  Tyler  woods,  until  another  loss  was 


FOX    HUNTING.  I3 

made,  and  the  gray  fox  was  discovered  high 
among  the  Hmbs  of  a  tall  tree  that  he  had 
climbed,  and  where  he  was  permitted  to  remain, 
the  hounds  being  called  oft  and  taken  to  the 
kennels,  the  puppies  having  shown  good  scent 
and  hunting  qualities. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FIRST    AMERICAN    ORGANIZED    HUNT    CLUB. 

The  first  organized  fox  hunting  club  we  have 
any  knowledge  of  we  get  from  the  records  of  the 
Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  and  it  is  of 
the  "Gloucester  Fox  Hunting  Club,"  whose 
membership  included  quite  a  number  of  gentle- 
men prominent  in  civic  and  military  life  in  Phila- 
delphia, about  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The 
first  meeting  of  this  club  was  held  on  December 
13th,  1766,  in  the  old  Philadelphia  Coffee  House, 
at  the  northwest  corner  of  Front  and  Market 
streets.  From  that  time  the  meeting  place  was  at 
the  old  ferry  house,  kept  by  William  Hugg,  at 
Gloucester.  The  club  at  its  organization  was  com- 
posed entirely  of  Philadelphians,  who  adopted  a 
code  of  rules  for  its  regulation,  and  the  club 
flourished  until  long  after  the  Revolution.  The 
roll  of  membership  exceeds  125,  and  includes  such 
names     as     Benjamin     Chew,     Charles     Willing, 


14  FOX    HUNTING. 

Thomas  Willing,  James  Wharton,  Thomas  Mifflin, 
Israel  Morris  Jr.,  Robert  Morris,  John  Cadwal- 
ader,  Richard  Bache,  Colonel  Thomas  Heston, 
Joseph  Penrose,  Joseph  Bullock,  Stephen  Moylan. 
Samuel  Caldwell,  Samuel  Howell,  Jonathan  Pen- 
rose, Isaac  Cox,  John  Dunlap,  Thomas  Leiper, 
and  James  Caldwell,  of  Philadelphia;  and  of  New 
Jersey,  General  Wilkinson,  General  Franklin 
Davenport,  Captain  James  B.  Cooper,  Captain 
Samuel  Whitall,  Colonel  Joshua  Howell,  Colonel 
Thomas  Robinson,  Jonathan  Potts,  and  Colonel 
Benjamin  Flower.  The  members  of  the  club  met 
once  a  week,  or  oftener,  for  the  hunt,  but  the 
Revolutionary  War  for  a  time  put  a  stop  to  the 
sport,  when  President  Samuel  Morris  and  twenty- 
one  others  of  the  club,  including  Thomas  Leiper, 
who  was  first  sergeant,  organized  the  First  City 
Troop  of  Philadelphia  City  Cavalry.  Captain 
Morris'  negro  slave,  "Old  Natty,"  served  the  club 
as  aid  and  master  of  hounds  from  1769,  at  $50  per 
year,  and  the  club  furnished  him  with  a  house  and 
horse,  his  assistant  being  Jack  Still.  The  uni- 
form of  the  club  in  1774  was  a  dark  brown  cloth 
coatee,  with  lapeled  dragoon  pockets,  white  but- 
tons and  frock  sleeves,  bufif  waistcoat  and 
breeches,  and  black  velvet  cap.  In  1775  the  pack 
consisted  of  thirty-one  hounds,  and  in  1778  the 
kennels  on  the  Delaware  near  Gloucester  Point 


FOX    HUNTING.  I5 

consisted  of  a  selected  pack  of  twenty-two 
hounds,  whose  names  were:  "Mingo,'"  "Piper," 
"Drummer,"  "Sweetlys,"  "Rover,"  "Countess," 
"  Dido,"  "  Slouch,"  "  Ringwood,"  "  Tippler," 
"Driver,"  "Tuneall,"  "Bumper,"  "Juno,"  "Dutch- 
ess," "Venus,"  "Sugnell,"  "Davy,"  "Toper," 
"  Bowler,"  and  "  Bellman,"  besides  ten  six- 
months-old  pups.  This  old  club  survived  until 
1818,  and  existed  for  fifty-tv/o  years.  Often  dur- 
ing the  hunting  season  when  the  ice  was  not 
strong  enough  to  admit  of  crossing  on  it  by  horse- 
back, the  Philadelphia  members  would  ride  to 
Trenton,  cross  the  bridge  there,  and  thence  down 
on  the  Jersey  side  rather  than  miss  the  arranged 
chase.  The  chase  generally  lasted  only  a  few 
hours,  but  once,  in  1798,  the  fox  carried  the  pack 
in  full  cry  to  Salem;  and  it  was  a  point  of  honor 
never  to  give  up  until  the  fox  was  killed  or 
holed. 

General  Robert  Wharton,  a  former  Mayor  of 
Philadelphia,  was  a  member  of  the  club.  The 
Thomas  Leiper  mentioned  was  the  father  of  the 
late  George  G.  Leiper  and  Samuel  M.  Leiper,  of 
Delaware  County,  and  a  great-grandfather  of  the 
present  George  G.  Leiper,  a  noted  fox  hunter 
and  keeper  of  hounds,  of  this  county  up  to  a 
recent  date;  so  that  his  love  of  the  sport  came 
naturally  to  him  from  his  ancestor.     While  the 


l6  FOX    HUNTING. 

sons  of  Samuel  M.  Leiper  were  not  fox  hunters, 
two  of  them,  Captain  Thomas  I.  Leiper  and  Gen- 
eral Charles  I.  Leiper,  were  distinguished  and 
brave  officers  in  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  General 
Leiper  serving  in  the  United  States  Volunteer 
Cavalry  under  Sheridan. 

THE    FOX    HOUND. 

From  the  information  we  get  of  the  hunting 
of  foxes,  the  English  and  French  hounds  of  that 
early  day  were  the  long-eared,  keen-scented,  loud- 
voiced  hound,  which  is  now  known  as  the 
"American  hound,"  and  which  has  been  used  in 
this  country  from  its  earlier  history,  and  were 
used  in  England  and  France  as  long  as  fox 
hunting  (that  is,  following  the  fox  by  scent)  was 
the  true  sport;  but  as  the  stock  of  horses  for 
cross-country  steeple  chasing  was  improved,  and 
they  wanted  faster  running  of  their  foxes  from 
cover  to  cover,  depending  on  the  master  of 
hounds,  huntsmen,  and  whippers-in  to  keep  their 
well-trained  pack  together,  then  they  required  the 
faster-running,  sturdy  hound,  with  little  nose  or 
voice,  and,  therefore,  bred  the  shorter-eared  and 
nosed  English  hound  of  the  present  day  for  their 
huntinsf. 


to 


K 


FOX    HUNTING.  I7 

CHAPTER  IV. 

HUNTING    IN    DELAWARE    COUNTY. 

Delaware  and  Chester  Counties,  originally 
and  up  to  1789  comprising  one  county,  are  prob- 
ably the  oldest  and  best-hunted  counties  in  Penn- 
sylvania. The  memory  of  living  man  cannot  go 
back  to  a  time  when  hounds  for  hunting  the  red 
fox  were  not  kept  within  their  limits. 

Those  living  within  a  few  years  past,  and 
some  of  whom  were  born  as  far  back  as  1795,  have 
told  us  of  fox  hunts  they  witnessed  when  boys, 
in  Middletown,  Aston,  and  Concord  townships : 
when  Charley  Pennell,  Nicholas  and  Joseph  Fair- 
lamb,  Squire  Baldwin,  and  Anthony  Baker  were 
noted  hunters,  and  later,  we  learn  of  hunts  from 
the  Black  Horse  and  Anvil  taverns,  the  former  in 
Middletown,  and  the  latter  in  the  part  of  Upper 
Providence  township  which  is  now  Media,  num- 
bering among  its  hunting  landlords  George 
Litzenberg  and  Charley  Wells,  and  of  the  stifif 
rides  made  more  daring  by  the  bracers  that  had 
been  taken  before  the  start.  Our  own  respected 
and  beloved  President,  Mr.  H.  E.  Sauliner,  tells 
of  his  riding  in  hunts  from  the  Anvil  early  in  the 
thirties;  and  J.  Howard  Lewis,  our  genial  and 
popular  Vice-President,  hunted  from  that  house 
in  about  1837,  the  tavern  name  being  afterwards 


l8  FOX    HUNTING. 

changed  to  the  "Providence  Inn."  In  those  good 
old  days,  among  the  earlier  noted  hunters  who 
kept  hounds  were  Abraham  Martin,  the  Greens 
of  Edgmont,  Henry  Myers,  Caleb  and  Minshall 
Hoopes,  John  Broomall,  James  Hickman,  Jesse 
Walter,  John  Palmer,  William  and  Pennell  Han- 
num,  Jim  Myers,  of  Thornbury,  Evan  Hannum,  of 
Concord,  James  Burns  and  Dr.  William  Gray,  of 
Chester,  George  Litzenberg,  of  Upper  Provi- 
dence, and  Tom  Beaston,  of  Upper  Chichester.. 
An  honorary  member  of  the  Rose  Tree  Club, 
Mark  Pennell,  also  kept  hounds  many  years  ago, 
and  our  well-known  Master  of  Hounds,  George 
W.  Hill,  commenced  his  hunting  with  him  in 
about  1830,  on  foot,  as  Mr.  Pennell  often  in- 
dulged in  that  way  of  hunting. 

From  this  Mark  Pennell,  now  eighty-eight 
years  of  age,  we  learn  that  Charles  Pennell,  his. 
cousin,  died  in  1829,  and  that  he  did  some  hunt- 
ing as  late  as  1828;  and  that  among  his  hounds, 
was  a  celebrated  blue  and  white  hound  named 
"Plunder."  Charles  Pennell,  who  was  born  about 
1760,  kept  hounds  from  his  earliest  manhood,, 
and  was  well  known  as  a  skilled  hunter  and  a  bold 
rider.  He  rode  at  several  bag  hunts  from  the: 
old  Anvil  tavern.  We  heard  of  him  from  a 
gentleman  who  was  born  in  1797,  and  who 
when     a    small    boy    was    watching,    with     his- 


FOX    HUNTING.  I9 

brothers,  the  hounds  running  over  the  hihs  on  his 
father's  farm,  in  Middletown  township  early  one 
morning,  that  Charley  Pennell  came  riding  to 
them  on  a  good  young  horse  that  had  never 
hunted  before,  and  which  he  put  at  a  low  worm 
or  stake  and  rider  fence,  and  that  the  horse  re- 
fused to  take  it.  At  Mr.  Pennell's  request,  the 
boys  cut  a  stout  stick  for  him,  and  with  this  per- 
suader he  drove  his  horse  at  the  fence  again  and 
he  went  blundering  over  it  after  the  hounds. 
Some  hours  after  this,  the  boys,  hearing  the 
hounds  returning,  ran  to  the  hills  and  met  them 
in  full  cry,  with  Mr.  Pennell  close  after,  his  horse 
taking  every  fence  in  the  way  in  flying  leaps.  It 
was  under  such  an  instructor  that  Mr.  Mark  Pen- 
nell got  his  early  experience  in  fox  hunting  from 
the  age  of  fourteen  years.  He  kept  from  eight 
to  ten  hounds  at  his  farm  home  in  Aston  town- 
ship, which  he  went  to  in  1835,  and  hunted  them 
for  many  years;  and  as  several  of  his  farmer 
neighbors  kept  a  few  hounds  also,  when  he 
wanted  a  hunt  his  ringing  fox-hunting  call  would 
bring  the  neighbors'  hounds  to  him.  His  prac- 
ticed ear  taught  him  to  know  the  cry  of  the  differ- 
ent hounds  he  hunted  with,  so  that  it  was  easy  for 
him  to  also  know  how  and  where  they  were  run- 
ning and  which  ones  were  on  the  lead. 

Few  farmers  objected  to  hunting  over  their 

2 


20  FOX    HUNTING. 

lands,  and  generally  they  were  fond  of  seeing  the 
hunt  and  hearing  the  hounds  in  full  cry;  and  this 
love  of  the  sport  is  illustrated  by  the  fact,  that  a 
farmer  named  Jesse  Russell,  living  in  Edgmont 
township,  and  whose  farm  contained  a  well- 
wooded  round  top  called  Hunting  Hill,  a  favorite 
retreat  for  foxes,  when  on  his  death  bed  re- 
quested that  he  should  be  buried  on  Hunting 
Hill,  where  he  could  hear  the  hounds  running. 
He  was  buried  on  the  north  side  of  this  hill,  and 
afterwards  the  spot  was  adopted  as  a  family  bury- 
ing ground,  and  so  still  remains  with  a  wall  of 
native  stone  around  it  which  is  fast  going  to  de- 
cay, but  which  some  of  the  fox  hunting  clubs  of 
the  county  propose  to  rebuild  and  put  in  good 
condition.      His  tombstone  bears  this  inscription : 

"This  stone  is  erected  to  the  memory  of  Jesse 
Russell,  who  departed  this  life  September  12th, 
1820,  in  the  42nd  year  of  his  age,  and  was  de- 
posited here  at  his  own  request." 

In  the  same  lot  is  the  grave  of  John  Russell, 
a  brother,  who  died  March  24th,  1831,  and  of 
Susanna  Russell,  who  died  January  5th,  1837;  and 
also  of  Priscilla  Russell,  who  died  August  4th, 
1861,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of  her  age; 
there  are  also  two  other  graves  of  members  of 
the  family. 

Jesse    Russell    was    an    ardent    fox    hunter. 


FOX    HUNTING.  21 

Priscilla  Russell  was  well  known  among  the  fox 
hunters  of  her  day  as  "Aunt  Prissy";  and  Caleb 
Hoopes,  now  eighty-five  years  old,  who  was  a 
fearless  hunter  in  those  days,  says  of  her  that  she 
lived  on  this  Hunting  Hill  farm,  and,  having  an 
inherited  love  of  the  sport,  she  always  had  ready 
a  mince  pie  or  some  good  cider  to  appease  the 
appetite  and  quench  the  thirst  of  her  fox-hunting 
friends.  All  the  hunters  of  that  part  of  the 
country  were  her  friends  and  were  sure  to  stop  at 
her  house.  So,  may  her  ashes  rest  in  peace,  and 
if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  spirits  of  the  de- 
parted being  permitted  to  participate  in  the  things 
that  pleased  them  in  this  world,  may  Jesse  and 
Priscilla  still  enjoy  the  musical  cry  of  the  hounds 
as  they  hunt  the  wily  fox  around  Hunting  Hill ! 

Many  other  farmers,  old  and  young,  hearing 
the  hounds  running  in  their  neighborhood,  would 
leave  work,  rush  to  the  barn,  saddle  and  bridle 
the  horse,  and  join  in  the  chase. 

Red  foxes  have  generally  been  plentiful  in 
Delaware  County,  and  therefore  the  true  lovers  of 
the  sport  have  always  hunted  the  wild  fox  and 
scorned  the  anise-seed  bag. 


/ 


22  FOX    HUNTING. 


CHAPTER  V. 


HUNTING    THAT    LED    TO    THE    FORMATION    OF 
THE    ROSE    TREE    CLUB. 

The  author  commenced  his  fox  hunting  with 
Mr.  J.  Howard  Lewis  in  the  winter  of  1852-53, 
and  they  were  two  of  the  originators  of  the  Rose 
Tree  Club.  At  that  time  among  the  old  noted 
hunters  who  packed  fox  hounds  in  this  county 
were  Jim  Burns  and  Ned  Engle,  of  Chester,  and 
they  had  been  hunting  for  years  in  Tinicum  and 
up  the  Ridley  creek  country,  and  with  them,  in 
r  the  fifties,  hunted  Jake  Stewart;  these  men  then 
hunting  on  foot;  Burns  and  Engle  at  that  time 
considering  themselves  too  old  to  ride.  Then 
there  was  John  Mahoney,  of  Rockdale,  who  had 
a  noted  pack  of  hounds  and  was  an  old  and  gritty 
rider,  although  it  is  said  that  John  commenced 
his  hunting  on  foot  with  Mark  Pennell  and 
George  W.  Hill,  who  furnished  him  with  his  first 
I  hounds.      George  Powell,  of  Springfield,  was  an 

\  old  and  good  liuntefj-vvitn  his  well-known  blue- 

\  speckled  pack,  and  his  hunting  companion.  Jack 

Smith.  Jones  and  Hunter  Moore,  of  Haverford, 
had  packed  hounds  from  1845,  "^"^^  o"^y  g^ve  it 
up  about  three  years  ago,  both  good  riders  and 
hunters,  and  always  with  a  pack  that  could  not  be 
excelled;  and  with  them  hunted  Dan  Abrahams, 


FOX    HUNTING.  23 

afterwards  known  as  the  "Old  Squire";  Bill  and 
Tom  Crosley,  of  Radnor,  hard  riders,  had  a  large 
pack  of  good,  wiry,  white-speckled  hounds;  Bill 
rode  a  gray,  spirited  mare  that  never  refused  the 
stiffest  four-rail  fence;  she  afterwards  was  owned 
and  ridden  by  J.  Edward  Farnum,  of  the  Rose 
Tree  Club.  Pratt  and  Wash.  Bishop,  of  Upper 
Providence,  both  excellent  hunters  and  riders,  had 
good  hounds;  so  had  Chandler  Thomas  and  his 
brother,  of  Upper  Providence,  who  lived  on  the 
farm,  now  the  Bullock  property,  adjoining  the 
Rose  Tree  Club  house  grounds;  Bill  Noble,  of 
Ridley,  had  hounds;  Jesse  Hickman,  of  Thorn- 
bury,  a  skilled  hunter,  good  rider,  a  great  lover 
of  the  sport,  had  a  fine  pack;  also  had  William 
Grant  and  Henry  Reynard,  Mike  Carrigan,  of 
Thornbury,  and  Levis  Speakman,  of  Birmingham, 
Wm.  Hannum,  of  Aston,  and  Osborn  Booth,  of 
Concord. 

Hounds  were  also  packed  at  the  Plum  Sock 
tavern  on  the  West  Chester  road,  known  as  the 
old  William  Penn,  and  kept  by  Joseph  and  John 
Tucker,  who  were  active  fox  hunters.  Later, 
there  was  Ned  Barber,  who  had  a  pack  of 
American  hounds  with  ears  trimmed  to  a  bull 
terrier  cut  and  chopped-off  tails;  this,  however, 
did  not  interfere  with  the  goodness  of  the  hounds, 
but  ruined  their  beauty  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  old 


24  FOX    HUNTING. 

hunters.  Such  trimming  might  not  mar  the 
beauty  of  the  short-eared  EngHsh  hounds  now  so 
popular  with  some  hunting  men.  Jackson  Baker, 
Davis  Broomall,  William  Green,  G.  Leiper  Green, 
Robert  Sill,  J.  Davis  Roney,  R.  David  Johnson, 
Sherwood  Baker,  and  James  Pinkerton  hunted  a 
pack  of  hounds  from  the  Howellville  tavern  (now 
Gradyville),  in  Edgmont  township,  kept  by  Robert 
Sill,  from  about  1866;  and  when  Davis  Broomall 
became  landlord  of  the  William  Penn  tavern,  in 
187 1,  this  pack  was  hunted  from  that  tavern 
house.  James  Neeld,  of  Concord,  also  had  an  ex- 
cellent pack  and  was  a  keen  sportsman. 

The  hounds  of  all  these  packs  were  of  the 
best  for  a  cold  drag,  a  hot  scent,  and  a  long  run, 
and,  as  many  of  the  packs  hunted  over  the  same 
country,  it  was  not  an  unusual  thing  to  have  them 
get  together  on  the  same  fox,  and  the  hunter 
would  find  himself  following  from  forty  to  sixty 
well-bred  hounds  in  full  cry,  making  music  that 
delighted  the  heart  and  stirred  the  blood  to 
daring  deeds  of  horsemanship. 

Mr.  Lewis  and  Mr.  Darlington  had  their  own 
pack  of  eight  or  ten  hounds,  and  they  packed  and 
hunted  together  until  the  Rose  Tree  Club  was 
formed;  their  hounds  for  the  first  years,  and  to 
1859,  being  packed  at  Mr.  Lewis'  mill  property  in 
Nether  Providence.     The  names  of  some  of  the 


FOX    HUNTING.  25 

hounds  kept  by  them  were  Mr.  Lewis'  ''Rousem," 
"Slasher/'  "Trailer,''  ".Sounder,"  and  "Tetiaw"; 
and  Mr.  Darlington's  "George"  and  "Belle,"  from 
the  Crosley  pack,  "Hickman,"  from  the  Powell 
pack  (and  named  for  the  distinguished  Congress- 
man of  this  district);  and  "Heenan,"  from  the 
Mahoney  pack  (named  for  the  then  celebrated 
prize  fighter).  Mr.  Lewis  always  said  that  when 
"Heenan"  was  called  up  to  scent  on  a  cold  drag 
and  he  gave  tongue,  we  were  sure  it  was  a  fox 
track. 


CHAPTER  VL 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  ROSE  TREE  CLUB. 

The  Rose  Tree  Club  was  first  formed  in  the 
year  1859  at  the  old  Rose  Tree  Inn,  after  J. 
Morgan  Baker  became  the  owner  and  landlord  of 
that  ta.vern  house,  and  it  was  organized  by  the 
election  of  J-  Howard  Lewis  as  President,  George 
E.  Darlington  as  Secretary,  and  J.  Morgan  Baker 
as  Treasurer,  and  minutes  of  meetings  and  hunts 
were  regularly  kept,  but,  unfortunately,  they  have 
been  lost.  Every  member  of  the  club  was  an 
active  and  trained  fox  hunter,  and  beins"  well 
qualified  to  hunt  the  hounds  by  practical  experi- 
ence, no  master  of  hounds  or  huntsman  was  re- 
quired.    A  whipper-in,  Jim  Miller  (colored),  v/as 


26  FOX    HUNTING. 

employed  to  bring  back  stray  hounds,  and  he  was 
a  good  and  bold  rider.  The  other  members  of 
the  club  were  Pratt  Bishop,  Thomas  Bishop, 
Wash.  Bishop,  Edward  Howard,  Edward  Lewis, 
Edward  E.  Worrall,  James  G.  Stacey,  Gideon 
MaHn,  and  John  J.  Rowland,  for  up  to  1873  it 
had  almost  exclusively  a  Delaware  County  mem- 
bership, Fairman  Rogers  and  J.  Edward  Farnum, 
who  joined  before  that  date,  both  having  resi- 
dences in  the  county. 

The  pack  was  made  up  of  the  hounds  of  Mr. 
Lewis  and  Mr.  Darlington,  and  hounds  furnished 
by  the  Bishops  and  by  J.  Morgan  Baker,  who  put 
in  a  good  red  bitch  named  "May,"  making  up 
about  fifteen  of  as  good  and  true  hounds  as  ever 
ran  a  fox.  These  hounds  were  kenneled  during 
the  hunting  season  in  an  out-building  attached  to 
the  old  tavern  barn. 

Many  a  hard  ride  the  members  had  together, 
starting  for  the  find,  as  they  did,  before  sunrise 
in  the  morning,  working  up  the  fox  from  the 
meadow  or  low  ground  where  he  had  been 
mousing  before  daylight;  sometimes  dragging  for 
miles  before  jumping  him  from  his  lair  on  the 
warm  side  of  a  wooded  hill,  where  he  was  lying 
curled  in  his  bed  of  leaves;  then  ofT  on  a  hard  run 
until  the  fox  was  holed  or  killed,  which  not  infre- 
quently was  long  after  the  noon  hour;  or  if  holed 


FOX    HUNTING.  T.'] 

earlier,  then  off  to  jump  a  fresh  fox  for  another 
run.  It  was  a  rare  chance  for  a  fox  to  get 
away  from  the  hounds  and  riders  until  he  had 
taken  to  earth.  Any  hunter  who  has  not  seen  the 
early  morning  drag  on  a  cold  scent  does  not 
know  the  pleasure  given  in  the  display  of  intelli- 
gence of  hounds  in  this  work  and  of  the  fine  scent 
with  which  they  are  gifted;  and  see  how  the 
young  hounds  learn  to  depend  on  the  reliable  old 
fellows  for  the  true  track,  when  they  give  tongue, 
and  how  they  eagerly  cluster  around  them  scent- 
ing for  the  track.  Other  hounds,  less  reliable, 
might  cry  a  track  and  no  attention  would  be  paid 
to  them.  This  working  a  cold  drag  is  a  delicate 
and  skilled  piece  of  business,  in  the  getting  of  the 
course  the  fox  has  taken  to  his  lair,  and  requires 
experience  and  strong  sense.  Well-trained 
hounds  scatter  in  this  work  so  as  to  lose  no 
chance  of  a  true  find;  but  as  the  scent  and 
course  get  certain  and  warmer,  then  your  pack- 
will  work  closer  together,  with  a  loud  burst  of  cry 
as  a  more  certain  spot  of  scent  is  reached.  When 
the  fox  is  jumped  there  is  no  mistaking  the  joy- 
ful, exultant  cry  that  bursts  from  every  hound, 
and  away  they  go,  and  he  who  would  follow  must 
now  ride  hard,  and  strain  ears  and  sense  to  get 
the  course  they  are  taking;  for  the  skilled  hunter 
has  ridden  closelv  with  his  hounds  on  the  drag. 


28  FOX    HUNTING. 

encouraging  them  with  his  voice  and  urging  them 
on  if  they  have  shown  disposition  to  quit,  and  he 
should  be  on  hand  for  the  run  to  encourage  the 
hounds  if  an  out  is  made,  and  see  that  they  make 
the  proper  casts  or  circling,  for  the  fox  may 
knock  them  out  by  doubling  on  his  tracks,  or  by 
running  a  fence,  or  through  a  stream  of  water,  or 
by  some  other  wily  trick  that  an  old  red  fox 
knows  only  too  well  how  to  adopt.  In  those  days 
no  hunting  horns  to  call  the  hounds  were  deemed 
necessary,  for  a  hunter  who  could  not  ring  his 
voice  over  the  hills  and  valleys  on  a  frosty  morn- 
ing to  the  hounds  far  away,  in  the  true  hunting 
cry,  was  not  considered  much  of  a  fox  hunter. 
Mr.  Mark  Pennell,  who  had  a  clear,  strong,  far- 
reaching  voice,  has  given  his  experience  how  far 
the  hunting  cry  can  be  heard,  and  he  tells  of  a 
certain  cold,  still,  frosty  morning  how  he  went  to 
the  barn  on  his  farm  in  Aston  and  after  cleaning 
and  feeding  his  hunting  horse  preparatory  to  a 
mount  for  a  hunt,  he  walked  to  the  top  of  a  hill  on 
his  farm  and  gave  his  calls  to  get  in  a  favorite 
hound  named  "Tyler,"  owned  by  Nicholas  Fair- 
lamb,  whose  farmhouse  was  on  the  Middlelown 
road  below  the  old  Presbyterian  church,  estimated 
to  be  between  four  and  five  miles  across  country 
from  Mr.  Pennell's.  After  calling  several  times, 
Mr.  Pennell  went  to  his  house  for  breakfast,  and 


FOX    HUNTING.  29 

coming  out  immediately  after  this  meal  was  over, 
he  found  "Tyler"  waiting  and  ready  for  him.  He 
learned  after,  that  the  hound  was  in  the  kitchen  of 
his  master's  house,  and  Mr.  Fairlamb,  hearing  him 
howling  to  get  out,  got  up  and  opened  the  door, 
and  away  went  the  hound.  Some  neighbors  of 
Mr.  Pennell,  living  between  his  house  and  the 
Fairlamb  house,  heard  Mr.  Pennell  calling  up  the 
hound  and  soon  after  heard  and  saw  *'Tyler"  run- 
ning fast  for  Mr.  Pennell's  house. 

Mr.  Pennell  also  says  that  on  another  occasion 
he  had  run  a  fox  to  the  Brandywine  and  earthed 
him  near  the  Baptist  church,  and  after  holing  he 
called  to  let  the  other  hunters  know  the  fox  was 
holed;  some  men  who  were  near  the  Willcox 
Catholic  church  in  Aston,  and  knew  Mr.  Pennell's 
voice,  heard  that  call;  this  distance  is  over  three 
miles. 

Those  were  the  days  when  the  sport  was 
truly  hunting,  and  not  steeple  chasing  with 
hounds  across  country.  The  hunting  horses  were 
not  as  good  then  as  now,  for  they  were  not 
blooded  stock;  but  the  hunter  knew  how  to  save 
his  horse's  wind  and  strength  by  never  forcing  a 
jump  when  unnecessary,  and  by  taking  some  of 
the  work  on  himself  in  the  climbing  of  steep  hills 
afoot,  leading  his  horse  to  the  top. 


30  FOX    HUNTING. 

THE    CUNNING    OF    THE    FOX. 

Every  man  of  the  club  knew  the  habits  of 
the  fox  by  experience,  and  after  one  or  two  runs 
of  the  same  fox  he  knew  what  that  fox  was  Hkely 
to  do  in  his  run.  It  may  be  well  to  say  here  that 
the  red  fox  of  that  day  was  full  of  cunning,  and 
while  a  few  were  holed  in  a  short  run,  the  old 
foxes  generally  seemed  fond  of  being  hunted,  and 
when  the  scent  was  not  strong  enough  to  enable 
the  hounds  to  run  with  heads  up,  or  as  was  called 
"breast  high,"  and  they  had  to  hunt  it  closely  on 
the  ground,  the  fox,  after  getting  well  ahead, 
would  stop,  sit  down,  listen  to  the  cry  of  the 
hounds,  and  roll  on  his  back  in  apparent  glee, 
allowing  the  hounds  to  come  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  him  before  starting  again  on  his  run.  If 
the  hounds  were  running  him  too  hard,  then  he 
had  various  tricks  of  cunning  to  throw  them  oflf 
his  scent;  sometimes  doubling  on  his  tracks,  that 
is,  turning  back  over  the  same  ground  he  had 
been  running  from  the  hounds,  and  then  leap  far 
from  it  so  as  to  break  the  scent,  which  naturally 
made  the  eager  hounds  overrun  and  lose  the 
track;  then  there  must  be  a  cast  back  to  find  it 
again.  Old  hounds  generally  circled,  as  the 
quickest  and  surest  way  to  find  where  the  fox 
had  gone,  while  young  hounds  were  apt  to  run 


FOX    HUNTING.  3  I 

the  back  track.  Another  favorite  cunning  of  the 
fox  was  to  cross  a  stream  of  water  by  leaping 
from  stone  to  stone,  or  by  swimming  the  broader 
ones,  and  even  broad  dams  of  water;  or  by  taking 
a  shallow  stream  and  running  the  course  of  it  for 
a  distance  and  then  taking  out  on  the  opposite 
side;  again,  he  would  mount  and  run  the  top  rail 
of  a  fence,  and  perhaps  take  a  cross  fence  the 
same  way,  and  then  leap  far  from  it  to  the  ground 
to  resume  his  run.  Again,  he  would  run  up  an 
incHning  tree  trunk  and  secrete  himself  in  the 
branches  until  the  hounds  passed,  or  if  they 
scented  him  and  surrounded  the  tree,  then  it  was 
not  an  unusual  thing  for  the  fox  to  spring  out 
among  the  hounds  and  get  away  from  them  in 
their  interfering  eagerness  to  catch  him.  And 
again,  he  would  run  into  the  middle  of  a  flock  of 
sheep  in  a  field,  and  do  all  the  sheep  might,  in 
their  fright,  they  could  not  get  rid  of  him  until 
he  chose  to  leave  them.  The  result  of  these 
tricks  was  a  rest  to  him  from  his  running,  and 
the  hunter  must  be  on  hand  to  assist  and  en- 
courage the  lost  hounds  in  solving  the  problem 
of  what  trick  the  fox  had  adopted.  A  well- 
known,  large,  white-tipped-tailed  fox  that  gave 
many  a  good  run  from  the  Miller  and  Tyler 
woods,  in  several  of  the  hunts  lost  the  hounds, 
when  he  tired  of  the  run,  in  the  midst  of  the  same 


;^2  FOX    HUNTING. 

corn  stubble  field,  and  his  trick  of  doing  it  was 
never  discovered. 

The  intelligence  of  the  old  hounds  was  fully 
exhibited  when  the  fox  had  tracked  through  a 
deep  snow;  here  they  would  plunge  their  noses 
to  the  bottom  of  the  track  for  the  scent,  and  after 
a  few  trials  determined  with  great  sagacity,  first, 
that  it  was  a  fox  track,  and  then  the  way  he  had 
gone. 

AMERICAN    HOUNDS    USED. 

While  for  bag  hunting  there  was  a  disposi- 
tion among  some  to  boast  of  a  fast-running 
hound  that  was  pretty  sure  to  be  the  first  at  the 
death  of  the  fox,  by  fair  or  foul  means,  the  Rose 
Tree  Club  took  no  pride  in  such  a  hound  for 
their  pack,  if  he  ran  far  ahead  of  the  pack  by 
cutting  or  circling  when  a  loss  was  made  and  took 
the  scent  without  giving  tongue.  Such  a  hound 
spoils  the  hunt,  and  the  way  they  had  to  dispose 
of  him  was  to  put  his  neck  under  the  bottom  rail 
of  a  worm  fence  in  the  hunting  field  and  leave 
him  to  his  lasting  repose. 

There  was  no  buying  or  selling  of  hounds  in 
the  early  existence  of  the  Rose  Tree  Club,  the 
pack  being  kept  up  by  breeding  and  crossing 
from  the  best  dogs  of  other  packs,  as  a  good- 
fellowship  existed  among  all  fox  hunters,  and 
little,    if   any,   jealousy   was   engendered    by   the 


American  Hound,  "Jumbo," 
of  the  Rose  Tree  Fox   Hunt   Pack. 


FOX    HUNTING.  33 

good-natured  rivalry  in  the  field.  The  American 
hound  was  the  only  hound  used,  the  pride  being 
to  have  him  show  full  American  breeding  points. 
The  size  was  not  so  much  a  question,  although 
large,  loosel3'-made  hounds  were  not  popular. 
What  was  wanted  was  deep-chested,  strongly 
put  together  hounds  for  lasting  in  running,  with 
good  sounding  voices,  pointer-shaped  noses  of 
good  length,  long  ears  that  would  meet  at  the 
tips  across  the  end  of  the  nose  when  stretched 
forward,  and  high-pointed  head  bone  at  top  of 
head.  It  was  not  an  unusual  thing  to  see  an  old 
fox  hunter  stretching  the  ears  of  a  favorite 
hound  with  his  fingers,  to  show  with  pride  how 
they  would  meet  across  the  end  of  the  nose. 
The  hounds  used  were  as  good  as  any  hunter 
could  desire,  and  for  an  all-day  hard  run  could 
not  be  excelled.  The  puppies  were  bred  and 
raised  at  the  hunter's  own  home. 

The  rule  of  the  club  was  that  any  member 
taking  the  hounds  out  for  a  run  must  see  that  they 
be  returned  safe  to  the  kennel,  and  the  members 
never  failed  to  obey  the  rule,  even  if  the  run  lasted 
until  after  sundown,  as  it  sometimes  did. 

The  hounds,  during  this  first  organization  of 
the  club,  were  only  kenneled  during  the  hunting 
season,  from  November  to  March,  each  owner  at 
other  times  keeping  his  hounds  at  his  own  home. 


34  FOX    HUNTING. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PLACES    WELL    KNOWN     TO     HUNTERS. 

The  well-known  places  for  starting  or  holing 
foxes  were :  Hunting  Hill,  the  Chestnut  Sprouts, 
afterwards  known  as  Chestnut  Woods,  Charles 
Johnson's  woods,  the  Cedar  Barrens,  Castle 
Rocks,  the  Snake  House  Woods  (which  took  its 
name  from  a  deserted  house  where  large  quan- 
tities of  snakes  were  found),  the  old  Saw  Mill 
woods  on  Crum  creek,  Lobb's  woods,  Trout 
Run,  Paxson's  Hollow,  Powel's  Rocks,  Bare  Hill, 
Tyler's  woods,  Miller's  woods.  Poplar  Hill, 
Painter's  woods,  Smedley's  Barrens,  a  large  tract 
of  woodland;  the  Turn  Hole  on  Crum  creek  be- 
low Holland's  bridge,  Fell's  Hills,  Gibbon's  Hills. 
Maris'  woods  on  Darby  creek.  Long  Point  on 
Ridley  creek,  and  the  Greenbriers,  below  the 
Black  Horse  hotel.  The  most  famous  places  for 
the  holing  of  foxes  were  Castle  Rocks,  Powel's 
Rocks,  and  the  Turn  Hole;  in  either  place  the  fox 
was  safe  from  bag  hunters,  as  they  could  not  be 
dug  out  owing  to  the  rocky  nature  of  the  ground. 
In  open  soil,  such  as  used  for  ground  hog  holes,  a 
few  hours'  digging  would  unearth  a  fox,  and  a 
forked  stick  with  a  string  across  it  for  the  fox  to 
snap  on,  so  that  it  could  be  twisted  by  a  turn 
around  his  nose  and  jaw,  made  it  easy  to  drag  him 
from  the  end  of  the  hole. 


FOX    HUNTING.  35 

OLD    CASTLE    ROCKS. 

Castle  Rocks  deserve  more  than  a  passing 
notice,  for  besides  being  so  well  known  to  fox 
hunters  of  Delaware,  Chester,  and  Montgomery 
Counties,  it  has  a  well  authenticated  legend  at- 
tached that  made  it  celebrated  from  the  time  of 
the  Revolutionary  War.  The  country  surround- 
ing it  was  then  a  densely  wooded  country,  and  its 
location  was  near  the  old  King's  highway,  which 
is  now  known  as  the  West  Chester  and  Philadel- 
phia turnpike  road,  along  which  the  trolley  road 
is  constructed,  and  the  old  rocks  and  remain- 
ing wood  are  now  used  for  picnic  grounds  and 
for  the  annual  reunion  and  love  feasts  of  the 
people  of  those  three  mentioned  counties,  where 
they  can  gossip,  talk  crops,  politics,  or  any  other 
rural  topics,  and  can  be  served  with  beef  from  a 
whole  roasted  ox,  ride  on  the  merry-go-round,  or 
be  entertained  by  plantation  songs  and  dances,  as 
well  as  witty  speeches  and  otherwise.  But  during 
the  hunting  season  the  winter  winds,  frosts,  and 
snows  put  an  end  to  these  modern  encroachments 
on  the  solemn  and  silent  solitude  of  the  old 
rocks,  and  the  fox  and  the  hunters  still  have  them 
as  of  yore;  the  fox  often  passing  over  or  near 
them  in  his  run  to  see  that  they  still  remain  safe 
for  him  to  go  to  earth  in,  when  too  hard  driven; 
or  if  he  is  already  tired,  he  quietly  slips  into  one 

3 


^  FOX    HUNTING. 

of  the  many  holes  in  them  for  rest,  knowing  that 
he  is  secure  both  from  man  and  dog. 

The  legend  is  that  a  bold  highwayman  named 
Fitzpatrick,  who,  as  one  story  goes,  had  been  an 
Irish  soldier  in  the  British  army  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  and  having  deserted,  turned  rob- 
ber, and  the  other  being  that  he  was  a  deserter 
from  the  American  army,  after  being  punished  for 
some  offence,  and  that  these  rocks  were  his  main 
haunt,  where  he  had  a  c^ve  in  which  he  lived 
alone  and  stored  his  booty,  for  if.  he  had  any  rob- 
ber companions  connected  with  him  they  never 
gained  the  celebrity  Fitz  did;  but,  if  a  cave  of  suffi- 
cient size  for  such  a  home  ever  existed  it  long  ago 
disappeared,  although  the  mass  of  high,  piled, 
loose  rocks  are  amply  large  for  the  formation  of 
a  cave  or  construction  of  a  hut.  Fitzpatrick.  as 
the  legend  goes,  had  a  very  tender  heart  for  the 
poor  and  needy,  and  while  he  had  no  love  for  the 
Whig  and  Patriot  of  that  day  and  robbed  their  tax 
collectors  and  well-to-do  farmers  and  tradesmen, 
yet  he  was  said  to  have  plundered  only  the  rich, 
and  gave  to  the  poor  when  he  found  them  in  need, 
and,  consequently,  he  had  many  friends  among 
them,  and  they  shielded  arid  served  him  and  saved 
him  often  frofrt  capture,  and  enabled  him  to  lead 
this  roving,  thieving  life  for  a  series  of  years,  in 
comparative  security.      As  it  is  also  told  of  him. 


FOX    HUI^TI^G.  2>1 

that  he  had  for  a  time  been  making  his  home  in 
a  small  deserted  house  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
the  fact  having  become  known  to  his  enemies,  one 
night  when  he  had  gone  there  to  rest  and  had 
tak^n  his,  or  somebody  else's  good  horse  into 
the  house  with  him,  it  was  surrounded  by  those' 
enemies,  who  pounded  on  the  door  and  de- 
manded his  surrender.  Fitz  cocked  his  trusty 
pistols,  opened  the  door,  and  mounting  his  saddled 
and  bridled  hofse  rode  boldly  through  the  fright- 
ened men,  and  bidding  them  good  evening  was  off 
and  away  unharmed  and  uncaptured.  The  dark 
hint  has  been  given  that  the  crowd  contained  fnore 
friends  than  enemies  of  this  bad  man.  Another 
instance  is  told  of  his  courage  and  daring,  and  this 
took  place  at  one  of  the  old  taverns  on  the  road  to 
West  Chester.  A  heavy  reward  price  for  those 
days  was  offered  for  his  capture,  and  the  neighbor- 
hood was  aroused  and  men  banded  together  to 
hunt  and  secure  him,  and  thus  it  was  that  on  a 
certain  day  one  of  these  parties,  corhposed  of  sev- 
eral men,  after  scouring  the  country,  had  stopped 
at  the  tavern  to  refresh  themselves,  leaving  their 
horses  hitched  on  the  outside,  and  feeling  secure 
in  numbers  they  had  stacked  their  guns  in  a  cor- 
ner of  the  bar  room  and  were  making  merry  over 
the  landlord's  good  cheer,  and  were  boasting  of 
how  they  would  capture  Fitz  when  they  found 


38  FOX    HUNTING. 

him.  In  walked  Fitzpatrick,  who  was  unknown 
to  them,  and,  after  Hstening  to  their  bravado,  he 
strided  to  the  bar,  and  ordering  a  glass  of  whiskey 
for  himself  invited  the  others  to  join  him,  which 
they  were  nothing  loth  to  do.  Drink  followed 
drink,  and  they  continued  their  merriment  to- 
gether, until  Fitz,  tiring  of  the  sport,  edged  him- 
self out  until  he  stood  between  the  men  and  their 
guns,  and,  drawing  and  cocking  his  pistols,  boldly 
announced  who  he  was  and  dared  them  to  capture 
him.  Finding  they  were  completely  cowed,  he 
coolly  ordered  them  out  into  the  road  before  him, 
where,  lining  them  up  at  a  safe  distance  from  his 
and  their  horses,  he  mounted,  and,  bidding  them 
good  day,  rode  off  at  a  gallop.  The  landlord,  pos- 
sibly, had  no  ill  feeling  against  Fitz;  at  least,  he 
did  not  show  himself  to  be  an  enemy. 

Fitzpatrick  had  often  boasted  that  he  would 
not  be  taken  by  mortal  man;  but  a  woman  effected 
his  downfall,  as  the  story  goes,  for  Fitz  was  not 
only  fond  of  strong  drink,  but  also  had  a  weakness 
for  comely  girls,  and  it  came  about  in  this  wise: 
On  the  north  side  of  the  old  West  Chester  road, 
near  Castle  Rock,  was  the  farmhouse  of  a  man 
named  McAfee,  and  which  was  on  the  farm  now 
known  as  the  Taylor  farm;  at  this  house  Hved 
a  buxom,  stout,  good-looking  Irish  girl,  whom 
Fitzpatrick  knew  and  admired;  so,  one  day,  being 


FOX    HUNTING.  39 

the  worse  for  liquor,  he  visited  the  house  and  went 
to  a  room  where  the  girl  was.  Seeing  a  pair  of 
new  shoes,  Fitz  conceived  the  idea  that  it  would 
be  well  to  exchange  his  old,  well-worn  pair  for 
them,  and,  sitting  down  on  the  side  of  the  bed,  he 
pulled  off  his  shoes  and  put  on  the  new  pair;  as 
he  raised  up,  the  girl,  who  had  gotten  up  behind 
him,  threw  her  strong  arms  around  him,  pinioning 
his  arms  fast  to  his  body.  Fitz,  thinking  it  a  play- 
ful joke  on  her  part,  tried  to  rock  himself,  in  a 
drunken  but  good-humored  manner,  from  her 
grasp;  the  girl,  however,  held  on  and  calling  aloud, 
the  farm  hands,  or  men  concealed,  rushed  in,  and 
overpowering  Fitz,  bound  him  with  ropes,  and  he 
was  thus  captured  and  taken  to  the  old  borough 
of  Chester,  where  he  was  afterwards  tried  as  a 
highway  robber  and  hung  in  the  year  1778.  It  is 
said  the  girl  was  either  tempted  to  this  act  of 
treachery  by  the  reward  offered,  or  through  jeal- 
ousy from  the  attentions  of  Fitz  to  another  girl  of 
the  neighborhood.  This  history  is  authenticated 
by  having  been  repeated  to  boys  born  soon  after 
the  end  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  by  them 
handed  down  in  their  old  age,  and  it  was  obtained 
directly  from  such  men. 

This  McAfee  property  was  owned  for  several 
years  by  John  Lewis,  the  father  of  J.  Howard 
Lewis,  and  he  and  his  family  occupied  the  house 


,4©  FOX    HyNTIIjIG. 

from  1819  to  1823;  during  that  time  the  neighbors 
who  visited  them  informed  Mrs.  Lewis  that  the 
,hous,e  was  haunted,  and  asked  her  if  she  had 
never  heard  at  night  the  fall  of  a  pistol  fropi 
the  bed,  as  it  had  fallen  in  the  scuffle  that  took 
place  when  Fitzpatrick  was  captured;  but  Mrs. 
Lewis  had  never  heard  it. 

Bayard  Taylor,  in  his  Story  of  Kennett,  gives  a 
romantic  account  of  this  Fitzpatrick,  under  the 
name  of  "Sandy  Flash,"  and  of  a  fox  hunt  he  par^ 
ticipated  in;  and  Mr.  H.  G.  Ashmead,  in  his  care- 
fully compiled  and  interesting  History  of  Delaware 
County,  gives  the  West  Chester  version  of  this 
man's  exploits  and  haunts  in  Chester  County, 
under  the  name  of  "James  Fitzpatrick,"  and  he 
says  that  Fitzpatrick  was  born  in  the  old  county 
of  Chester  and  served  his  apprenticeship  as  a 
blacksmith,  and  that  he  first  served  in  the  army 
of  the  Province,  and  until  he  deserted  in  1777, 
after  having  been  flogged  for  some  offence.  Mr. 
Ashmead's  account  of  him  is  well  worth  the 
reading. 

CHAPTER  VIIL 

SOME    OF    THE    HUNTS    FROM    1853    TO    1860. 

From  1853  up  to  about  the  sixties  J.  Howard 
Lewis  had,  each  year,  a  Christmas  hunt  with  the 
hounds  from,  his  home  on  the  paper  mill  property, 


Crco.  W.  Hill,  M.   F.   H. 


See  pages  52,  110,  115. 


FOX    HUNTING.  .4J 

followed  by  a  dinner  to  his  hunting  fjiends,  and  a 
royal  good  time  they  had.  At  one  of  these  hunts 
on  a  green  Christmas,  without  snow  or  ice,  George 
Powell,  with  Jack  Smith,  had  his  hounds  also  on 
the  Crum  creek  valley,  and  a  fox  was  started  early 
in  the  morning  by  both  packs.  In  the  run  a 
second  fox  was  started  and  the  hounds  separated, 
a  part  taking  each  fox.  George  Powell,  Jack 
Smith,  and  the  author  got  with  the  part  of  the 
packs  that  ran  their  fox  down  the  Crum,  and  a  hot 
chase  they  had  to  Carr's  thicket  in  Ridley  town- 
ship, passing  the  present  Swarthmore  country, 
which  was  then  open  farm  land  and  timber.  At 
Carr's  thicket  the  fox  had  taken  to  the  fence  and 
an  out  was  made  by  the  hounds,  so  the  riders  dis- 
mounted to  tighten  girths  and  let  their  horses  get 
their  wind.  The  hounds  being  of  the  best  and 
well  experienced,  soon  found  the  trick  the  fox  had 
resorted  to,  and  some  of  the  older  ones  mounted 
the  fence  to  hunt  the  track,  and  when  the  course 
of  the  fox  was  found  and  signaled  to  the  other 
hounds  by  the  cry  of  the  finder,  they  climbed  the 
fence  in  the  direction  indicated,  and,  giving 
tongue,  they  hunted  it  till  they  found  where 
the  fox  had  left  the  fence,  and  then  away  they  all 
ran  in  full  cry  through  the  thicket.  Then  there 
was  a  mounting  of  horses  as  the  fox  burst  from 
cover  for  a  run  back  over  the  same  country,  on  a 


42  FOX    HUNTING. 

return  to  Crum  creek,  with  the  eager  hounds  in 
close  pursuit  and  the  riders  following,  keeping  the 
hounds  in  view,  and  thus  we  came  back  to  the 
Wallingford  mill  dam,  which  the  fox,  close 
pressed,  swam  over,  followed  by  the  hounds.  It 
looked  so  much  like  a  sure  kill  that  Jack  Smith,  in 
his  excitement,  pushed  his  horse  into  the  dam  up 
to  his  saddle  girths,  intending  to  swim  across  after 
the  hounds,  and  it  took  very  vigorous  commands 
to  him  from  George  Powell  before  he  could  be 
induced  to  come  back  and  ride  with  us  to  the 
Howard  Lewis'  ford  to  cross  the  Crum.  The  fox 
was  holed  on  Jacob  Hibberd's  farm  with  the 
hounds  snapping  at  him  as  he  went  to  earth.  The 
other  riders,  J.  Howard  Lewis,  Edward  Lewis, 
James  G.  Stacey,  and  Eli  D.  Pierce  Jr.,  had  holed 
their  fox  in  the  Turn  hole  after  a  hard  run  up  and 
down  the  creek,  and,  hearing  our  hounds,  they 
rode  to  meet  us;  and  it  being  then  long  passed 
the  noon  hour  we  gladly  adjourned  to  Mr.  Lewis' 
house  for  our  Christmas  turkey  dinner  and  to  talk 
over  the  sport  of  the  day,  and  laugh  over  the 
funny  incidents,  how  this  one  got  tumbled  from 
his  horse,  and  that  one  got  tangled  in  a  fence, 
and  another  got  knocked  out  from  the  chase,  etc., 
etc. 

The  writer  was  riding  at   the  time   a  little 
brown,  well-bred  Maryland  mare,  that  had  been 


FOX    HUNTING.  43 

owned  and  hunted  by  Mark  B.  Hannum,  and  she 
was  gritty  and  high-strung  and  ready  to  jump  at 
anything  in  her  way,  but  she  was  so  quick  and 
eager,  one  had  to  sit  her  with  watchful  care 
to  keep  in  the  saddle.  She  was  also  a  good 
road  trotter  in  harness.  Some  time  after  this 
she  escaped  from  the  field  she  was  in,  and 
although  she  had  been  from  Maryland  for  five 
or  six  years,  she  started  back  for  her  old  home, 
and,  getting  on  the  Delaware  railroad  below 
Wilmington,  a  train  chased  her  for  a  mile,  she 
running  at  full  speed,  until,  seeing  other  horses 
in  a  field,  she  leaped  the  fence  and  galloped  out 
among  them.  This  run  and  fright,  however,  split 
her  wind,  and  from  that  on  she  was  a  wheezer. 

J.    HOWARD    lewis'    DEN,    AND    THE    OTHER    PLACES 
WHERE    HUNTERS    WERE    MADE    WELCOME. 

When  J.  Howard  Lewis  built  his  handsome 
new  stone  stable  on  his  mill  property,  he  con- 
structed a  cozy  office  and  den  room  in  it,  which 
was  heated  in  winter  by  a  Httle  wood  stove  that 
could  soon  be  made  comfortably  hot;  back  of  the 
stable  was  a  porch  that  this  room  opened  out  on, 
and  in  summer  this  was  a  most  comfortable  loung- 
ing place,  with  an  attractive  view  of  a  bend  in  Crum 
creek,  with  meadow  and  wooded  hillside.  The 
room  was  furnished  with  old-fashioned  furniture, 


44  FOX    HUNTING. 

chairs,  table,  and  an  old  bookcase  desk  with 
closets  combined.  The  walls  were  hung  with 
trophies  of  the  chase,  fox  heads,  brushes,  crop 
sticks,  and  hunting  pictures,  and  in  the  corners 
were  piled  old  flint  lock  muskets  and  pistols,  old 
fowling  pieces,  bayonets,  canes,  and  other  an- 
tiques, while  the  top  of  the  bookcase  held  several 
old  tall  leather  hats  of  Revolutionary  and  1812 
times,  and  on  the  table  was  a  silver  ice  pitcher  and 
glasses  on  a  silver  waiter  ready  for  business. 
There  Mr.  Lewis  entertained  his  numerous  friends 
for  many  years,  and  on  Sunday  mornings  there 
were  sure  to  be  several  collected,  for  Sunday  was 
a  great  visiting  day  among  residents  of  the  county 
at  that  time.  Here  you  would  often  meet  Ed- 
ward Lewis,  Samuel  C.  Lewis,  Henry  B.  Edwards, 
General  Edward  F.  Beale,  Frank  Field,  George  E. 
Darlington,  J.  Edward  Farnum,  Henry  E.  Saul- 
nier,  Edgar  T.  Miller,  Isaac  M.  Lewis,  Samuel 
Miller,  George  W.  Hill,  Dr.  Rush  S.  Huidekoper, 
George  M.  Lewis,  James  C.  Hall,  H.  M.  Ash,  Jas. 
D.  Rhoades,  Dr.  Samuel  P.  Bartleson,  C.  Fallon 
Lewis,  Jared  Darlington,  Bird  Dixey,  Dory 
Wright,  William  H.  Corlies,  Walter  M.  Sharpies, 
William  Little,  and  other  well-known  men  in  the 
county,  for  the  hospitality  of  Mr,  Lewis  had  a  wide 
and  extended  reputation. 

In  the  earlier  hunting  days  there  were  many 


I 


FOJf    HUilTING.  45 

places  where  the  hunters  were  made  welcome. 
There  was  Edward  Lewis,  whose  housekeeper 
made  ginger  cakes  that  beat  the  band,  and  at  his 
house  on  Ridley  creek,  now  used  with  the  Media 
water  works,  you  were  always  welcome  and  cakes 
and  cider  were  in  abundance;  then  there  was  Em- 
mor  Eachus,  or  "Uncle  Aime,"  as  he  was  called, 
and  here  you  were  sure  to  get  pie,  cakes,  nuts, 
cider,  and  something  stronger  if  you  wanted  it;  for 
in  those  days  there  was  no  serious  prejudice 
against  the  moderate  use  of  strong  drink,  and  al- 
most ever}'  country  house  had  its  home-made 
wine;  there  was  also  Jacob  Painter's,  Washington 
Bishop's,  Pratt  Bishop's,  and  others,  where  the 
latch-string  was  always  out. 

HABITS    OF    THE    FOX    IN    RUNNING. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  hunting  season,  be- 
ginning about  the  first  of  December,  and  through 
the  month  of  January,  the  fox,  when  started, 
usually  made  his  run  in  an  extended  circle,  and 
the  hunter,  after  the  experience  of  a  run,  knew 
when  he  started  him  again  about  the  course  he 
would  take  in  his  runs,  and  if  a  sight  of  him  was 
desired,  as  well  as  of  the  leading  hounds  in  full 
cry,  the  hunter  could  ride  to  a  part  of  the  course 
where  such  view  could  be  had  by  quietly  sitting 
on  his  horse  and  awaiting  their  coming.     But  in 


46  FOX    HUNTING. 

February  and  later  in  the  season,  when  you  struck 
an  old  dog  fox,  which  you  mostly  did,  as  the  bitch 
foxes  would  rarely  run  at  this  season,  your  fox, 
after  a  circle  to  get  his  bearings,  straightened  for 
his  own  country,  he  having  likely  traveled  ten, 
fifteen  or  twenty  miles  for  this  visit.  If  it  were  a 
good  scent-laying  day,  then  you  had  a  hard  ride, 
straight  away,  with  your  hounds  running  with  few 
faults.  If  the  wind  was  against  the  way  the  fox 
had  to  take  for  his  home,  he  was  forced  to  run 
out  of  his  course  and  slanting  to  the  wind,  as  an 
old  fox  will  not  run  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind,  if  he 
can  avoid  it,  knowing  well  that  it  is  not  only 
damaging  to  his  running  powers,  but  that  it  also 
carries  his  scent  to  the  following  hounds,  directing 
them  straight  to  him.  This  head  wind  will  make 
the  fox  change  his  course  in  long  tacks,  like  the 
sailing  tacks  of  a  vessel,  and  this  is  necessary  to 
prevent  his  being  driven  too  far  away  from  the 
place  v/here  he  has  a  safe  rocky  retreat,  if  he  can 
reach  it.  This  is  the  time  his  greatest  cunning 
comes  into  play,  for  if  he  cannot  outwit  the  hounds 
and  throw  them  off  the  scent  and  thus  gain  a  rest, 
he  must  find  a  safe  harbor  to  bury  himself  in,  or 
be  killed  on  the  ground;  but  he  will  not  hole  if  he 
can  avoid  it  until  he  reaches  his  home.  This 
makes  a  long,  hard  run  for  the  hunter,  and  tries 
the  wind  and  staying  qualities  of  his  horse.      A 


FOX    HUNTING.  47 

good  fox  at  the  start,  when  fresh,  can  outrun  the 
swiftest  fox  hound,  but  he  has  not  the  endurance 
of  the  weh-bred  hound,  and  his  cunning  alone  can 
save  him  in  a  long  run. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  OLD  ROSE  TREE  TAVERN  AND  BENJAMIN 
ROGERS,  LANDLORD. 

J.  Morgan  Baker,  one  of  the  best  landlords 
the  old  Rose  Tree  ever  had  (and  it  was  built  in 
the  eighteenth  century),  came  to  this  house  as 
owner  and  landlord  in  the  spring  of  1859,  having 
purchased  the  property  from  the  Cummins  family 
who  had  owned  and  run  it  for  many  years  before, 
in  fact,  from  1833.  Mr.  Baker  sold  the  property 
and  removed  from  it  in  the  spring  of  1864,  and 
John  Graham,  being  the  owner  and  landlord,  sold 
it,  in  the  spring  of  1866,  to  Thomas  B.  Miller, 
who  was  the  landlord  until  the  fall  of  1867,  when  he 
sold  it  to  James  D.  Velott,  and  he  in  turn  sold  it 
to  his  brother,  Joseph  D.  Velott,  in  January  of 
1868,  the  brother  becoming  the  landlord;  and  he 
sold  it  back  to  James  D.  Velott  in  June,  1870,  who 
sold  it  to  George  E.  Darlington,  trustee,  in  April, 
1872,  it  being  held  by  him  in  trust  for  J.  Howard 
Lewis,  J.  Edward  Farnum,  Fairman  Rogers,  and 


48^  FOX    HUNTING. 

Samuel  C.  Lewis,  the  real  owners  under  this  deed; 
the  purchase  being  made  by  them  to  secure  the 
tavern  stand  for  the  present  landlord,  Benjamin 
Rogers,  and  to  have  a  permanent  place  for  the 
keeping  of  the  club  hounds;  for  it  will  be  seen 
that  this  old  hotel  property  had  changed  its  land- 
lords quite  frequently  in  these  later  years,  and  the 
kind  of  accommodations  the  club  was  to  have  were 
very  uncertain,  "Uncle  Benny  Rogers,"  as  he  is 
familiarly  called,  went  to  the  Lamb  tavern,  m 
Springfield  township,  as  landlord  in  the  spring  of 
1868,  and  to  the  Rose  Tree  tavern  in  the  spring 
of  1872. 

J.  Edward  Farnum  had  been  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  club  from  about  1861;  Samuel  C. 
Lewis  and  Fairman  Rogers  having  joined  some- 
what later. 

The  Rose  Tree  Club,  organized  as  before 
stated,  packed  its  hounds  during  the  hunting 
season  at  this  old  tavern  property  from  the  time 
J.  Morgan  Baker  became  the  landlord  until  some 
time  in  1870,  at  which  time,  Thos.  Garrett  being 
landlord  and  tenant  under  the  James  D.  Velott 
ownership,  and  some  disagreement  with  Garrett 
having  arisen,  the  hounds  were  taken  from  the 
Rose  Tree  and  packed,  first  at  the  Orchard  prop- 
erty of  George  E.  Darlington,  near  Media,  and 
then  at  the  Lamb  tavern  in  Springfield,  then  kept 


Benjamin  Rogers, 
Landlord  Rose  Tree  Inn. 


FOX    HUNTING.  49 

by  Benny  Rogers,  and  were  packed  there  until 
Benny  removed  to  the  Rose  Tree.  This  Was  the 
first  acquaintance  the  chib  members  had  with 
Benny  Rogers  and  his  most  estimable  wife  and 
accomplished  landlady.  Benny  was  known  as  the 
"Quaker  Landlord"  from  his  using  the  plain 
language,  not  that  he  was  a  member  of  that  so- 
ciety, or  because  he  dressed  in  their  peculiar  garb, 
but  from  his  use  of  the  word  "thee"  in  addressing 
any  one.  Benny  also  has  a  mild,  persuasive  man- 
ner, and  does  not  delight  in  giving  strong  drink 
to  inebriated  persons,  who  are  gently  admonished 
to  take  a  "parilla."  Benny  Was  never  known  to 
take  a  drink  of  liquor  at  his  own  bar,  or  anywhere 
else,  for  that  matter,  and  he  seldom  goes  from 
home.  He  has  raised  a  family  of  six  or  more  chil- 
dren, boys  and  girls,  and  all  are  a  credit  to  him, 
and  none  of  intemperate  habit. 

So  satisfactory  was  the  acquaintance  with 
Benny  and  his  good  wife  that  there  was  a  deter- 
mination not  to  part  from  him;  hence  the  bring- 
ing of  him  to  the  Rose  Tree.  Here,  as  landlord, 
and  with  Mrs.  Rogers'  skill  and  ability  in  the  table 
entertainment,  and  particularly  in  the  serving  of 
the  monthly  roast  pig  dinners  to  the  club  mem- 
bers, they  made  a  great  popularity  and  notoriety 
for  the  old  house  throughout  all  this  part  of 
eastern  Pennsvlvania;  and  no  man  who  has  sat  at 


50  FOX    HUNTING. 

these  monthly  ckib  suppers  (and  many  guests  have 
been  entertained  there  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  some  Canadians  and  English- 
men), will  ever,  in  life,  forget  the  pleasure,  satis- 
faction, and  enjoyment  he  has  received  at  these 
meals.  The  popularity  of  these  suppers  remains 
since  Mrs.  Rogers'  death  under  the  able  manage- 
ment of  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Green,  who  exhibits  all 
the  skill  and  ability  of  her  mother.  The  memory  of 
Mrs.  Rogers  will  ever  be  dear  to  the  members  of 
the  club,  and  the  respect  and  love  they  bear  it  will 
be  lasting. 

As  the  old  Rose  Tree  Inn  is  so  thoroughly 
identified  with  the  club,  it  may  be  interesting  to 
give  some  insight  into  the  history  of  it.  The 
present  stone  eastern  end  of  the  old  house  was 
standing,  we  have  good  authority  for  saying,  as 
far  back  as  1796,  and  perhaps  much  earlier,  as  its 
location  is  on  one  of  the  old  leading  highways  of 
the  county,  which  was  laid  out  and  opened  by 
the  Commissioners  of  William  Penn.  Attached 
to  the  western  end  of  this  old  stone  house  for  many 
years  was  a  frame  addition,  which  was  removed  in 
1837,  and  the  present  stone  western  end  was  built 
by  George  Cummins,  the  then  owner  and  landlord; 
his  widow,  Mrs.  Matilda  Cummins,  keeping  the 
house  after  his  death  for  many  years;  and  in  her 
time  it  was  celebrated  for  its  sleighing  parties,  as  it 


FOX    HUNTING.  5 1 

perhaps  had  been  for  years  before,  it  being  one  of 
several  taverns  of  the  county  which  kept  open 
house,  as  it  was  called,  during  the  winter  months, 
for  sleighing  parties,  and  where  music  was  fur- 
nished for  dancing,  as  well  as  good  hot  suppers. 
The  other  open  houses  for  these  jolly  parties  being 
the  President,  on  the  West  Chester  road;  the  Star 
tavern,  on  the  street  road;  Stamps  tavern,  on  the 
West  Chester  and  Wilmington  road;  the  Seven 
Stars  tavern,  at  Village  Green,  and  the  Practical 
Farmer  tavern,  below  Marcus  Hook,  on  the  Wil- 
mington road,  just  over  the  Delaware  State  line. 
It  was  not  unusual  for  some  of  the  hunters,  as 
well  as  other  young  men,  to  take  the  entire  round 
of  these  houses  on  the  same  night,  in  J.  Howard 
Lewis'  large  four-horse  sleigh,  and  to  dance  at 
each,  as  there  were  always  plenty  of  pretty 
country  girls  ready  and  willing  to  enjoy  the 
country  dances. 

George  Cummins  purchased  the  Rose  Tree 
property  of  Isaac  Cochran  in  April,  1833,  who 
had  purchased  it  of  Robert  Thomas  in  June,  1801, 
who  had  purchased  it  of  John  Maxwell  Nesbit  and 
David  Hayfield  Conyngham  in  June,  1795.  They 
purchased  it  at  a  sherifif's  sale  made  by  Wil- 
liam Gibbons,  High  Sheriff  of  the  county  of 
Chester,  of  which  Delaware  county  was  then  a 
part,  the  deed  being  made  in  September,    1774. 

4 


52  FOX    HUNTING. 

This  shows  the  antiquity  of  the  old  tavern  (for 
they  were  all  called  inns  or  taverns  in  those  days). 
The  above  record  of  title  is  carried  as  far  back  as 
the  public  records  of  Delaware  County,  at  Media, 
show,  and  to  carry  the  title  back  to  William  Penn, 
we  must  resort  to  the  public  records  in  Chester 
county,  at  West  Chester. 


CHAPTER  X. 

RE-ORGANIZATION    OF    THE    CLUB. 

On  October  4th,  1873,  the  club  was  re- 
organized, and  George  W.  Hill  was  made  Presi- 
dent; Frederick  Fairlamb,  Vice-President;  Samuel 
Miller,  Secretary,  and  George  M.  Lewis,  Treas- 
urer. The  President  acted  as  Master  of  Hounds; 
there  was  no  Huntsman, 

The  book  kept  by  George  M.  Lewis,  as 
Treasurer,  shows  the  membership  as  follows : 

In  1873 :  J.  Howard  Lewis,  Henry  E.  Saul- 
nier,  Mark  Pennell,  George  M.  Lewis,  Theodore 
Wright,  Robert  Ash,  J.  Edward  Farnum,  William 
L  Leiper,  George  W.  Hill,  Frederick  Fairlamb, 
Edgar  T.  Miller.  Samuel  W.  Hawley,  Samuel  Mil- 
ler, Samuel  C.  Lewis,  William  F.  Miskey,  William 
M.  Lloyd,  Andrew  T.  Walker,  Fairman  Rogers, 
Isaac   M.    Lewis,   William    H.   Jenks,    Albert    P. 


FOX    HUNTING.  53 

Lewis,  Edward  Worth,  and  I.  Lawrence  Halde- 
man. 

In  1874  there  were  added  to  the  membership 
list  the  names  of  Burd  Dixey,  Francis  F.  Rowland, 
J.  Mitchell  Baker,  Dr.  Thomas  C.  Stellwagen,  Ed- 
ward T.  Davis,  A.  Morris  Herkness,  A.  J.  Cassatt, 
Moncure  Robinson  Jr.,  William  H.  Corlies, 
Samuel  Welsh  Jr.,  Dr.  Daniel  Bray,  Charles  B. 
Sprogell,  and  Charles  H.  Townsend. 

And  in  1875  and  1876  the  following  names 
were  added  to  the  list  of  membership :  Davis 
Lewis,  William  H.  Miller,  Rush  S.  Huidekoper, 
Isaac  L.  Miller,  F.  T.  Walton,  Frank  Thomson, 
and  J.  M.  Stoddard. 

There  was  no  contributor  membership  during 
these  years,  and  the  annual  dues  of  members  were 
fixed  at  $5. 

MEMBERSHIP    OF    1877. 

In  1877  the  club  had  a  membership  of  thirty 
active  hunting  members  and  fourteen  contributing 
members.  The  by-laws  provided  that  the  mem- 
bership should  be  confined  to  residents  of  Dela- 
ware and  Chester  Counties  and  Philadelphia. 
The  annual  dues  of  active  members  were  increased 
to  $10,  with  an  initiation  fee  of  $io. 

After  Dr.  Daniel  Bray,  Charles  H.  Townsend, 
Moncure  Robinson  Jr.  and  Dr.  R.  S.  Huidekoper 


54  FOX    HUNTING. 

joined,  these  men  and  other  members,  all  active 
riders,  kept  horses  expressly  for  hunting;  and 
there  was  hard  riding  in  the  hunting  field,  the 
ordinary  post  and  rail  and  stake  and  rider  fences 
forming  no  obstacle,  as  the  horses  with  their 
riders  took  these  leaps  without  hesitation,  fear,  or 
disposition  to  shirk. 

FIRST    ROSE    TREE     CLUB     RACES. 

Soon  after  these  Philadelphia  men  joined  the 
Rose  Tree  Club,  races  were  instituted  on  the  old 
Rose  Tree  track,  with  the  steeple  chase  course 
across  the  present  Bullock  farm,  over  the  post  and 
rail  fences  as  they  stood,  with  added  stake  and 
rider  fence  and  hurdle  jumps,  and  also  with  a 
stone  wall  jump  on  the  track  grounds.  Hurdles 
were  constructed  on  the  track  for  hurdle 
races;  and  flat  races  and  farmer  races  were  also 
popular. 

The  people  of  Delaware  and  Chester  Counties 
and  Philadelphians  took  great  interest  in  the 
races,  and  they  with  the  farmers  of  the  county, 
who  turned  out  in  great  numbers,  crowded  the 
race  grounds.  Many  handsome  turnouts,  four- 
in-hand  coaches,  tandem  and  double  teams,  with 
single  teams  of  all  descriptions,  and  horseback 
riders,  both  ladies  and  gentlemen,  filled  up  the 
inner  grounds  of  the  racing  field.     The  club,  then 


FOX    HUNTING.  55 

as  now,  was  noted  for  its  hospitality,  and  freely 
entertained  all  guests  who  chose  to  participate. 

The  races,  flat,  hurdle,  and  steeple  chase, 
were  all  ridden  by  gentlemen  riders,  and  were  well 
and  spiritedly  contested.  The  club  had  many 
good  riders,  among  them  being  J.  Howard  and 
Sam  Lewis,  Huidekoper,  Robinson,  Townsend, 
Bray,  Miller,  Worth,  Mitch.  Baker,  and  others, 
who  also  distinguished  themselves  in  the  racing 
field.  Jockies  and  professionals  were  barred  from 
the  track.  The  farmers'  races  were  always  an  at- 
tractive feature  and  the  entries  were  of  true 
farm  working  horses.  It  was  surely  a  gala  day  for 
fine  sport,  good  fellowship,  and  enjoyment.  The 
prizes  were  silver  cups,  or  goblets,  crop  sticks, 
saddles  and  bridles;  gambling  was  never  permitted 
on  the  race  course,  nor  at  the  club  house,  and 
card  playing,  dice,  or  other  like  games  have  never 
been  popular  with  the  members,  and  not  indulged 
in. 

Shortly  before  the  death  of  our  old  fox- 
hunting friend,  John  Mahony,  while  attending  one 
of  the  Hunt  races,  he  was  knocked  down  and 
senseless  by  a  bolting  horse.  He  was  carried  to 
a  room  in  the  Rose  Tree  Inn,  and,  being  an  old 
man,  was  nursed  anxiously  during  the  night,  show- 
ing no  sign  of  consciousness.  Toward  morning 
his  wife,  who  had  been  sent  for,  arrived.      Her 


56  FOX    HUNTING. 

wails  brought  him  to,  and  opening  his  eyes  he  said : 
"Becky,  did  ye  feed  the  pups  before  ye  left?" 
Mahony's  pups  always  shared  the  kitchen  fire  and 
comfort  with  the  family. 

MEMBERSHIP    IN    1877. 

In  1877  the  active  members  of  the  club  were: 
J.  Howard  Lewds,  Henry  E.  Saulnier,  George  M. 
Lewis,  George  W.  Hill,  Frederick  Fairlamb, 
Samuel  Miller,  Samuel  C.  Lewis,  Fairman  Rogers, 
A.  J.  Cassatt,  Edward  Worth,  Frank  Thomson, 
William  H.  Corlies,  Dr.  T.  C.  Stellwagen,  Dr. 
Daniel  Bray,  Theodore  Wright,  Charles  H. 
Townsend,  Dr.  R.  S.  Huidekoper,  Samuel  Welsh 
Jr.,  J.  Mitchell  Baker,  Moncure  Robinson  Jr.,  W. 
H.  Jenks,  William  Lloyd,  Davis  Lewis,  William  H. 
Miller,  George  Young,  S.  Frank  Sharpless,  Charles 
Camblos  Jr.,  W.  G.  Abbott,  Dr.  J.  W.  White, 
George  E.  Darlington,  and  J.  Edward  Farnum. 

The  contributing  members  were  William  F. 
Miskey,  L  Lawrence  Haldeman,  T.  Burd  Dixey, 
Charles  B.  Sprogell,  Isaac  Miller,  J.  M.  Stoddard, 
John  L.  Evans,  Horace  R.  Manley,  Samuel  W. 
Seeds,  William  P.  Eyre,  and  William  I.  Leiper. 

The  officers  of  the  club  were :  George  W.  Hill, 
President;  Henry  E.  Saulnier,  Vice-President; 
William  H.  Corlies,  Secretary  and  Treasurer:  the 
President  acting  as  Master  of  Hounds,  and  he  a'p- 


X 


o 


H 


FOX    HUNTING.  57 

pointed  all  committees.  The  by-laws  provided  for 
the  election  of  an  executive  committee,  but  if 
any  was  elected,  they  do  not  appear  to  have  per- 
formed active  duties.  . 


CHAPTER  XI. 

ERECTION     OF    THE    CLUB     HOUSE     IN     1881. 

In  1881  the  present  club  house  was  erected 
under  an  agreement  between  Benjamin  Rogers, 
the  owner  of  the  property,  and  George  W.  Hill 
and  William  H.  Corlies,  trustees  for  the  Rose 
Tree  Fox  Hunting  Club,  dated  April  23d,  1881, 
which  stipulated  that  the  club  should  have  the 
privilege,  at  its  own  cost,  to  erect  the  club  house 
at  the  place  where  it  is  now  located,  for  its  enjoy- 
ment, for  the  term  of  fifteen  years  from  that  date, 
at  the  end  of  which  term  the  house  was  to  go  back 
into  the  possession  of  Mr.  Rogers,  and  the  club 
could  then  give  it  up  or  become  tenants;  the  club 
reserving  the  right  to  remove  the  house  at  any 
time  during  the  term  by  paying  to  Mr.  Rogers  the 
sum  of  $100,  for  each  year  his  ground  had  been 
occupied  by  it.  The  most  friendly  relationship 
has  always  existed  between  Mr.  Rogers  and  his 
family  and  the  club  members,  and  the  suppers  sup- 


58  FOX    HUNTING. 

■plied  monthly  on  the  regular  meeting  nights  have 
invariably  been  satisfactory  to  the  members  and 
their  numerous  guests. 

INCORPORATION    OF    THE    CLUB. 

On  November  226.,  1881,  the  club  was  in- 
corporated by  Honorable  Thomas  J.  Clayton, 
President  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas 
of  Delaware  County  (who  afterwards  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  club  to  the  time  of  his  death),  under 
the  name  of  the  "Rose  Tree  Fox  Hunting  Club," 
the  incorporators  being  Fairman  Rogers,  A.  J. 
Cassatt,  George  W.  Hill,  J.  Howard  Lewis,  Henry 
E.  Saulnier,  Samuel  C.  Lewis,  J.  Edward  Farnum, 
Rush  S.  Huidekoper,  J.  Mitchell  Baker,  Moncure 
Robinson  Jr.,  William  H.  Corlies,  George  M. 
Lewis,  and  George  E.  Darlington;  and  the  Board 
of  Directors  named  in  the  charter  were:  George 
W.  Hill,  J.  Howard  Lewis,  Henry  E.  Saulnier,  and 
William  H.  Corlies.  Under  the  by-laws,  the  fol- 
lowing ofificers  were  elected :  President,  George  W. 
Hill;  Vice-Presidents,  Henry  E.  Saulnier  and  J. 
Howard  Lewis;  and  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  Wil- 
liam H.  Corlies.  The  by-laws  called  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Master  of  Hounds,  but  stipulated  that  the 
President  may  hold  the  office  of  Master  of  Hounds, 
and  the  Secretary  that  of  Treasurer,  and  Mr.  Hill 
acted  both  as  President  and  Master  of  Hounds. 


FOX    HUNTING.  59 

The  membership  was  limited  to  one  hundred,  in- 
cluding active  and  contributing. 

MEMBERSHIP     IN     1882. 

In  1882  the  active  members  on  the  roll  were 
as  follows :  George  W.  Hill,  Henry  E.  Saulnier, 
J.  Howard  Lewis,  William  H.  Corlies,  Samuel  C. 
Lewis,  J.  Edward  Farnum,  J.  Mitchel  Baker,  Fair- 
man  Rogers,  George  M.  Lewis,  Dr.  Rush  S. 
Huidekoper,  A.  J.  Cassatt,  Moncure  Robinson 
Jr.,  George  E.  Darlington,  William  H.  Miller,  Ed- 
ward Worth,  Frank  Thomson,  Charles  H.  Town- 
send,  S.  Frank  Sharpless,  W.  G.  Abbott,  Alfred 
Biddle,  Alexander  W.  Biddle,  Richard  S.  Ed- 
wards, Isaac  Johnson,  Charles  B.  Rhodes,  W. 
H.  Gaw,  F.  C.  Macauley,  A.  L.  Wetherill,  Harry 
W.  Biddle,  Harry  Carson  Jr.,  John  H.  Irwin, 
Edward  F.  Beale  Jr.,  Aubrey  Jones,  Dr.  J. 
B.  Kinney,  Dr.  Thomas  Biddle,  Dr.  J.  Wilkes 
O'Neill,  Edward  J.  Etting,  A.  E.  Harvey,  R. 
D.  Barclay,  Henry  B.  Edwards,  Roger  F. 
Sturgis,  Rudolph  Ellis,  Thomas  Clyde  Jr.,  Dr. 
Samuel  P.  Bartleson,  George  W.  Eachus,  Walter 
G.  Wilson,  James  W.  Mercur,  Richard  L.  Ash- 
hurst,  J.  W.  Nevin,  I.  Engle  Cochran  Jr.,  Walter 
S.  Massey,  James  L.  Fisher,  John  R.  Flower,  Dr. 
Kingston  Goddard  Jr.,  Dr.  Robert  A.  Given, 
Frank  Field,  James  P.  Scott,  John  B.  Robinson, 


60  FOX    HUNTING. 

James  D.  Rhoads,  Kirk  B.  Wells,  Samuel  J. 
Sharpless,  William  Struthers,  Humphrey  M.  Ash, 
Ellicott  Fisher,  Dunbar  Price,  Clement  N.  Wil- 
liams, S.  L.  Levy,  S.  Harlan  Price,  J.  Edward 
Carpenter,  B.  K.  Jamison,  J.  Howard  Lewis  Jr., 
Vanderbilt  Allen,  Herbert  Coxe,  William  Wayne 
Jr.,  W.  H.  McCallum,  Charles  E.  Mather,  H.  Carl- 
ton Adams,  General  Edward  F.  Beale,  Nathan 
Brooke,  J.  T.  Bailey,  Louis  F.  Betz,  Frederick  W. 
Fotterall,  Philip  P.  Peace,  Jared  Darlington, 
Rufus  E.  Shapley,  James  C.  Hall,  Dr.  William  S. 
Little. 

The  contributing  members  on  the  roll  were: 
William  L  Leiper,  I.  Lawrence  Haldeman,  J.  M. 
Stoddard,  John  L.  Evans,  Samuel  H.  Seeds,  Wil- 
liam P.  Eyre,  Dr.  Francis  F.  Rowland,  H.  W. 
Bickley,  George  Yarnall,  Charles  A.  Wells. 

The  honorary  members  on  the  roll  were : 
Jefferson  Shaner,  Jesse  J.  Hickman,  Mark  Pennell, 
John  J.  Rowland,  John  Mahony,  Samuel  Miller, 
Alexander  Pope  Jr.,  Wm.  M.  Lloyd. 

The  riding  dress  of  members  at  this  time  was 
a  scarlet  coat  and  waistcoat,  riding  breeches, 
high  silk  hat,  top  boots,  and  crop  stick.  The 
Master  of  Hounds,  Huntsman,  and  members 
hunted  in  this  costume  for  several  years,  with  few 
exceptions;  but  the  high  hat  was  only  worn  by  a 
few. 


FOX    HUNTING.  6l 

SOME    OF    THE    HARD    RIDERS    AND    THEIR    HORSES. 

Among  the  members  of  the  club  were  many 
good  and  fearless  riders  at  this  time,  as  there  had 
been  in  previous  years. 

Our  old  friend,  J.  Howard  Lewis  Sr.,  had 
always  been  a  good  horseman,  and  was  the  owner 
of  a  number  of  fast  trotting  horses,  among  them 
being  his  little  bay  mare,  "Sunday,"  and  with 
which  he  won  many  a  trotting  race,  usually  under 
saddle.  Among  his  hunting  horses  he  boasted  of 
"Old  Jesse,"  "Old  Billy,"  "Billy  Mulligan,"  "Gab- 
erlunzie,"  "Jackson,"  "Tam  O'Shanter,"  "Ivan- 
hoe"  (or  "Dan,"  as  he  was  frequently  called), 
"Black  Bess,"  and  "Baalbec,"  and  he  was  always 
ready  to  give  a  mount  to  a  friend.  It  was  on  his 
horses  that  the  first  lady  riders  of  this  county  fol- 
lowed the  Rose  Tree  pack.  Howard  tells  many 
good  stories  of  his  hunts,  and  among  others  he 
tells  of  following  the  hounds,  mounted  on  "Gaber- 
lunzie,"  accompanied  by  Miss  M.,  who  rode  the 
mare,  "Black  Bess."  The  hounds  were  running 
well  with  the  fox  not  far  ahead,  and  George  Yar- 
nall,  who  rode  at  230  pounds,  was  in  the  advance, 
when  his  horse  struck  a  fence  and  down  fell  horse 
and  driver.  Howard  pressed  on,  and  as  he  came 
up  to  Yarnall,  struggling  on  the  ground,  he  saw 
that  he  was  vigorously  kicking  himself  loose  from 
his  fallen  horse,  and,  knowing  him  to  be  strong  and 


62  FOX    HUNTING. 

able,  Howard  called  to  Miss  M.  to  come  on,  and 
away  they  rode,  leaving  Yarnall  to  help  himself 
from  the  ground,  which  he  manfully  did,  and 
Howard  says  before  he  and  Miss  M.  had  gone  two 
fields  away,  Yarnall  was  pounding  alongside  of 
them  again  and  was  soon  in  the  lead. 

Sam  Lewis,  in  his  earlier  days  with  the  club, 
rode  a  little,  sprung-kneed  black  horse,  that  was 
wiry  and  gritty  and  ready  to  go  wherever  Sam 
pointed  him,  and  Sam  didn't  hesitate  to  point  him 
anywhere,  when  he  was  in  the  mood,  and  a  pusher 
would  do  it.  On  one  occasion,  in  a  ride  above  the 
Snakehouse  woods,  where  there  was  a  wall  built 
across  the  head  of  a  hollow  to  prevent  washing, 
Sam,  seeing  it,  called  to  the  other  horsemen  to  fol- 
low, and  away  he  galloped  on  "Blacky"  for  the 
wall,  and  over  they  went,  disappearing  from  view 
on  the  other  side.  No  one  followed  him.  and  it 
was  found  the  ground  where  the  horse  alighted 
was  some  ten  feet  below  the  level  of  ground  on 
the  upper  side  of  the  wall;  but  the  horse  and  Sam 
were  all  right.  At  another  time,  when  riding  to 
the  hounds  and  following  close  in  with  them,  Sam, 
on  "Blacky,"  rode  from  the  field  at  a  fence  at  the 
side  of  the  road,  and  Tom  Bishop,  who  was  follow- 
ing close  and  knew  the  danger  of  the  jump,  called 
to  Sam  not  to  take  it,  but  Sam,  in  the  lead,  called 
back,  "you're  too  late,"  and  sailed  over  the  fence 


FOX    HUNTING.  63 

and  down  into  the  road,  some  twelve  or  fifteen 
feet  below,  coming  off  with  horse  and  rider 
sound.  Sam  for  many  years  afterwards  rode  the 
old  horse  "Tom,"  or  "Tarn  O'Shanter,"  and  did 
much  hunting,  racing,  and  steeple  chasing  with 
him. 

J.  Edward  Farnum  rode  the  comparatively 
light-built  but  muscular  white  mare  that  had  been 
owned  and  ridden  by  Bill  Crosly  for  several  years, 
and  Bill  w'as  a  reckless  and  hard  rider.  This  mare 
was  a  splendid  hunter  and  a  high  jumper,  never 
refusing  fence,  wall,  or  gate,  and  Mr.  Farnum,  al- 
though not  a  reckless  rider,  more  than  once  took 
the  courage  out  of  boasters  by  putting  her  over  a 
new  four  or  five  rail  fence  where  they  dared  not 

follow. 

"pandora." 

Probably  the  most  celebrated  and  best  known 
mare  that  hunted  wdth  the  Rose  Tree  pack  was 
Dr.  Rush  Shippen  Huidekoper's  white  dappled 
"Pandora,"  or  "Dora,"  as  she  was  affectionately 
called  by  those  nearest  to  her. 

George  W.  Hill  brought  "Pandora"  from 
West  Virginia,  and  while  he  did  not  know  her 
pedigree,  she  undoubtedly  was  seven-eighths,  if 
not  full  throughbred.  Mr.  Hill  sold  her  at  one 
of  his  sales  to  J.  Howard  Lewis  Sr.  She  was 
about  four  years  old,  and  Howard  could  neither 


64  FOX    HUNTING. 

drive  or  ride  her  with  any  satisfaction,  and  as  for 
menial  work,  this  mare,  without  known  name  at 
that  time,  was  too  grand  a  lady  to  submit  to  it. 
When  put  into  the  paper  mill  team,  after  refusing 
light  harness  work,  she  sulked,  balked,  and  refused 
to  move,  and  when  beaten  would  lie  down  in  the 
chains  and  let  the  other  horses  drag  her,  rather 
than  either  pull  or  walk.  Under  saddle  she  was 
ugly  and  wilful,  and  all  the  pounding  over  the  head 
and  ears  with  the  crop  stick  couldn't  conquer  her; 
so  Howard  gave  her  up  as  a  bad  lot,  and  handed 
her  over  to  Dr.  Huidekoper  in  a  horse  trade,  in 
1877,  just  on  the  eve  of  the  Doctor's  departure,  in 
March,  for  Europe  (after  he  had  taken  his  medical 
degree  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania),  to  visit 
the  European  hospitals;  so  the  mare  was  turned 
out  on  a  farm  for  the  spring,  summer,  and  fall 
months  and  until  the  Doctor  returned  from  Europe 
the  following  November.  When  the  Doctor  took 
her  up  he  first  gave  her  a  trial  to  a  light  buggy, 
from  the  Orchard  and  up  the  Providence  road. 
"Pandora"  went  quietly  along  until  the  foot  of 
Sandy  Bank  hill  was  reached  and  there  stopped 
stifif  and  fast,  evidently  preparing  herself  for  a  fight. 
After  one  or  two  mild  efforts  to  get  her  to  move, 
without  success,  the  Doctor  laid  the  lines  across 
the  dash,  took  his  mail  from  his  pocket  and  quietly 
read  his  letters  and  newspapers.     For  a  half  hour 


FOX    HUNTING.  6$ 

the  mare  stood  in  the  hot  sun  Hke  a  statue;  then 
she  began  to  get  uneasy,  resting  first  one  leg,  then 
another,  shaking  her  head  and  moving  it  from  side 
to  side,  but  still  the  Doctor  patiently  sat,  paying  no 
attention  to  her.  Finding  herself  beaten  in  her 
game  of  wait,  and  that  there  was  to  be  no  fight, 
she  turned  her  head  for  a  look  at  her  master,  and 
seeing  he  was  apparently  enjoying  the  quiet  rest, 
without  further  hesitation  she  gave  up  and  walked 
quietly  up  the  hill,  never  after  giving  the  Doctor 
further  balking  trouble. 

"Pandora"  was  not  a  heavy-weight  mare,  but 
was  muscular  and  well  put  together,  and  she  car- 
ried Dr.  Huidekoper  through  many  a  hard  hunt 
and  many  a  closely  contested  race  across  country, 
and  the  Doctor  then  turned  the  scales  at  more 
than  190  pounds. 

"Pandora"  won  many  steeple  chases  at  the 
club  races,  and  she  and  the  Doctor  were  hard  to 
follow  in  the  hunting  field,  for  "Pandora"  was 
ready  to  take  anything,  and  took  her  jumps  in  a 
rush  that  sent  her  far  beyond  the  obstacle,  be  it 
fence,  ditch,  or  wall,  and  she  was  game  to  the  last. 
In  one  of  her  hunts,  which  lasted  for  hours,  and 
in  which  the  hounds  and  fox  were  several  times  in 
the  same  field,  and  it  looked  like  a  death,  and  the 
hunters  were  riding  hard  for  the  brush,  "Pandora" 
and  the  Doctor  stuck  to  it  until  the  mare  was  so 


66  FOX    HUNTING. 

exhausted  she  had  to  be  left  at  a  farm  barn  for  the 
night,  being  too  much  used  up  to  get  her  home. 
The  Doctor  occasionally  loaned  her  to  a  friend  for 
a  hunt,  and  on  one  occcasion  he  loaned  her  to  a 
young  gentleman  of  Philadelphia,  who  mounted 
her  in  Media  and  started  for  the  Rose  Tree  to 
hunt,  but  the  mare  was  not  going  that  way,  and 
ran  the  young  man  almost  into  Chester  before  he 
succeeded  in  getting  her  stopped. 

But  "Dora"  was  gentle  and  not  difficult  to 
handle  with  the  Doctor,  and  Miss  M.,  his  sister-in- 
law,  rode  her  without  trouble.  She  had,  however, 
a  playful  disposition  to  elevate  her  heels  in  single 
harness,  but  even  in  this  she  did  not  aim  to  do 
harm,  for  she  invariably  lifted  her  feet  high  above 
the  dash  board  and  over  the  heads  of  the  occupants 
of  the  wagon.  The  Doctor  drove  her  without 
blinds,  check  rein,  or  kicking  strap,  and  when 
asked  why  he  did  so,  his  answer  was,  he  wanted 
the  mare  to  have  full  chance  to  kick  clear  of  the 
buggy.  Finally,  when  "Dora"  and  the  Doctor 
gave  up  fox  hunting,  and  she  went  into  business 
use  in  Philadelphia,  the  mare  learned,  after  a  sharp 
fall  on  the  slippery  cobble  stones,  that  showing  her 
heels  in  the  city  was  neither  profitable  nor  grace- 
ful, and  she  gave  up  this  amusement  on  the  paving 
and  only  indulged  in  it  when  she  got  out  on  the 
country  roads.     Any  one  seeing  her  standing  on 


FOX    HUNTING.  6/ 

the  streets  with  the  Doctor's  big  buggy  wagon, 
unhitched  and  head  down,  would  not  have  taken 
her  to  be  the  high-spirited,  mettlesome  animal  she 
was;  but  with  it  all  she  had  a  great  affection  for 
the  Doctor  and  would  follow  him  about  in  harness 
or  under  saddle  like  a  faithful  dog.  "Dora"  be- 
came more  extensively  known  throughout  the 
state  from  the  military  use  she  got  in  the  camps 
of  the  National  Guards,  while  the  Doctor  was  a 
major  on  the  staff  of  General  George  R.  Snowden, 
and  in  parades  in  Philadelphia;  and  in  her  ten  years 
of  such  service  she  frequently  distinguished  herself 
in  camp  in  the  leaps  she  took  over  a  barrier  made 
of  muskets,  boxes,  or  other  material  that  could  be 
piled  up,  for  the  mare  was  not  afraid  to  face  any- 
thing she  was  asked  to  leap.  "Pandora,"  in  her 
old  age,  had  to  be  killed,  in  Philadelphia,  but  her 
end  was  glorious,  for  she  was  served  up  in  steaks 
to  some  choice  friends  at  a  dinner  at  the  Phila- 
delphia Club,  and  while  all  pronounced  the  steaks 
delicious,  yet  when  the  nature  of  the  meat  was  dis- 
closed, some  there  were  who  found  the  dinner 
difficult  to  retain. 

Other  good  horses  there  were,  both  in  the 
racing  and  in  the  hunting  field. 

Charles  H.  Townsend's  thoroughbred  horse, 
"Rummey,"  won  most  of  the  early  flat  and  hurdle 
races. 

5 


68  FOX    HUNTING. 

Moncure  Robinson  Jr.  had  a  dun  horse, 
named  "The  Farmer,"  that  could  peg  along  with 
wonderful  endurance  and  jump  anything.  This 
horse  won  a  basket  of  champagne  bet  by  carrying 
three  men  weighing  together  four  hundred  and 
seventy  pounds,  over  a  three  and  a  half  feet  hurdle 
on  the  Rose  Tree  track.  Dr.  J.  William  White 
rode  this  horse  at  the  Ambler  races,  Washington, 
in  a  three  and  a  half  miles  race,  and  won  against 
good  horses,  that  were  expected  to  be  the  winners, 
by  a  good  lead.  Dr.  White  rode  a  number  of 
times  with  the  Rose  Tree  hounds. 

Walter  S.  Massey  rode  a  couple  of  winners  at 
the  club  races,  and  rode  well. 

Fairman  Rogers'  great  mares  were  called 
"Josephine"  and  "Dolly." 

A.  J.  Cassatt  and  his  brother,  J.  G.  Cassatt, 
rode  with  the  club  hounds  for  two  winters. 

Dr.  Daniel  Bray  had  a  number  of  good  horses 
that  he  rode  in  the  races  and  with  the  hounds,  and 
he  rode  hard  and  well.  He  was  the  owner  of  the 
black  gelding,  'Tvanhoe,"  and  traded  him  to  J. 
Howard  Lewis  Sr. 

"George  the  Fourth,"  owned  by  William  G. 
Huey,  was  a  hard  horse  to  beat  in  a  steeple  chase, 
or  long  flat  race,  and  won  several  races.  At 
the  Belmont  course  he  fell  with  his  rider,  Dr.  M. 
H.  Cryer,  at  the  water  jump,  landing  the  Doctor 


FOX    HUNTING.  69 

on  the  ground  by  the  breaking  of  a  stirrup  strap; 
but  he  pluckily  held  on  to  the  horse,  and, 
mounting  again,  came  in  winner,  riding  with  one 
stirrup. 

"Orderly"  was  another  good  horse,  and  from 
Mr.  Henry  R.  Hatfield  we  get  the  following  ac- 
count of  him:  "Orderly"  was  born  near  Charlottes- 
ville, Va.,  sire  and  dam  unknown,  and  sent  to  Ring- 
gold W.  Lardner  as  a  charger  for  use  in  the  First 
Troop,  Philadelphia  City  Cavalry.  The  horse  was 
obstinate  and  evinced  such  a  desire  to  buck,  jump, 
and  run  away  that  he  was  useless  for  that  purpose. 
Mr.  I.ardner,  however,  rode  him  for  two  seasons 
with  the  hounds  of  the  Rose  Tree  hunt.  When 
the  horse  first  suddenly  made  up  his  mind  to  take 
a  four-rail  fence,  he  went  over  it  like  a  bird,  seem- 
ingly clearing  it  with  a  foot  and  a  half  to  spare. 
When  Mr.  Lardner  died,  the  horse  became  the 
property  of  Mr.  Hatfield,  and  was  hunted  regularly 
with  the  Rose  Tree  hounds.  He  won  many 
prizes  for  high  jumping,  steeple  chasing,  and 
flat  racing.  After  a  few  years  of  handling,  he 
became  an  excellent  charger,  though  tales  are 
still  told  of  how  he  would,  in  camp,  suddenly 
take  unnecessary  jumps  to  the  amazement  of  by- 
standers. 

Another  well-known  horse  was  "Rosinante," 
owned  and  ridden  first  by  George  W,  Hill,  both 


70  FOX    HUNTING. 

in  hunting  and  racing,  about  1880,  and  afterwards 
by  Mr.  Carroll  Smyth.  "Rosinante"  was  a  high 
jumper  and  an  excellent  hunter,  and  admirably 
handled  both  by  Mr.  Hill  and  by  Mr.  Smyth.  He 
was  steady,  accurate,  straight  as  an  arrow  over  an 
obstacle,  and  was  probably  one  of  the  prettiest 
jumpers  in  the  field,  with  plenty  of  endurance,  too. 

Another  horse  well-known  was  "Scalplock," 
owned  and  ridden  by  Mrs.  Walter  R.  Furness. 
With  a  will  of  iron  and  a  mouth  of  velvet,  owing 
to  the  handling  of  Mrs.  Furness,  the  horse  was 
probably  one  of  the  strangest  combinations  of 
good  nature  and  obstinancy,  combined  with  all  the 
best  qualities  of  a  man's  horse. 

The  first  races  were  run  on  the  Griffith, 
Darby,  track,  by  eleven  subscribers  from  the  club, 
the  prizes  being  two  large  hunting  pictures.  The 
first  race  was  run  by  five  for  one  of  the  pictures, 
and  was  won  by  Charles  H.  Townsend  on  "Rum- 
mey." 

The  second  race  was  run  by  the  other  six, 
and  the  picture  was  won  by  Dr.  Huidekoper  on 
"Artaxerxes." 

The  Rose  Tree  steeple  chase  course,  of  two 
and  a  half  miles,  was,  as  now,  principally  across 
country,  over  what  is  now  the  Bullock  farm, 
formerly  owned  by  John  Ottey,  and  afterwards  oc- 
cupied by  John  J.  Rowland,  and  the  jumps  were 


FOX    HUNTING.  71 

over  stiff  four-rail  fences,  with  some  hurdles  and 
a  wall. 

The  members'  race  over  this  course  had  such 
riders  as  J.  Howard  Lewis,  George  W.  Hill, 
Samuel  C.  Lewis,  Dr.  Huidekoper,  Townsend, 
Robinson,  Dr.  Bray,  George  M.  Lewis,  Worth, 
Ash,  and  Massey. 

The  members'  two-mile  special  steeple  race  on 
this  course  was  for  a  silver  cup,  marked  "Pre- 
sented to  the  Club  by  Meredith  Norris,  1880." 
He  was  a  young  Philadelphian  who  frequently 
rode  in  the  Rose  Tree  races,  and  since  dead.  It 
is  known  as  the  "Meredith  Norris  Cup,"  and  the 
winners  were  entitled  to  have  their  names  and  the 
names  of  their  horses  inscribed  on  the  cup,  with 
the  date  of  their  winning.  The  cup  bears  only  the 
following  race  inscriptions : 

"Won  by  Geo.  W.  Hill,  on  'Rosinante,'  in 
Members'  Steeple  Chase,  Fall  Meeting,  Oct.  9th, 
1880." 

"Won  by  J.  H.  Lewis  Jr.,  on  Tlacid  Joe,' 
Members'  Steeple  Chase,  Fall  Meeting,  Oct.  6th, 
1881." 

In  more  recent  times  the  races  and  hurdle 
jumping  have  been  well  contested  by  J.  Howard 
Lewis  Jr.,  Dr.  Charles  A.  Dohan,  Samuel  D. 
Riddle,  Leander  W.  Riddle.  William  M.  Kerr. 
William  A.  Stotesburv,  George  R.  Fox.  Edward 


y2  FOX    HUNTING. 

B.  Chase,  E.  Sanford  Hatch,  H.  Percival  Glen- 
dinning,  and  others,  with  entries  of  good  horses 
and  superior  riding.  The  contests  have  been 
spirited  and  exciting,  and  the  races  have  continued 
highly  successful,  attracting  many  of  the  best 
citizens  of  the  county  and  of  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia, as  well  as  of  neighboring  towns  and 
counties;  the  farmers'  race  still  being  a  prominent 
feature  and  hard  ridden,  every  rider  doing  his  best 
to  win,  in  his  own  way. 

Up  to  the  fall  of  1895  the  races  were  under 
racing  rules  established  by  the  Club's  race  com- 
mittees, who  adopted  the  approved  track  rules  of 
the  day,  as  far  as  they  would  apply  to  club  mem- 
bers. 

About  June,  1895,  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
abling some  of  the  members  who  had  racing 
horses  to  enter  their  horses  in  association  races 
on  other  tracks,  the  Club,  by  its  Master  of 
Hounds,  joined  the  National  Hunt  Association, 
and  the  Rose  Tree  races  have  been,  since  that 
time,  run  under  the  rules  of  that  association. 


FOX    HUNTING.  73 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE     ROSE     TREE     INN,     WITH     ITS     MANY 
HISTORICAL    ASSOCIATIONS. 

The  following  article  was  published  in  the 
Philadelphia  Times,  of  August  23d,  1885: 

"Fox  hunting  in  Delaware  and  Chester 
Counties  is  as  old  as  the  counties  themselves — as 
old  as  the  times  of  William  Penn  and  the  Pro- 
prietary Governors.  The  young  men  of  the  pres- 
ent day  in  these  counties  who  take  to  the  hunt 
inherit  their  love  of  it,  for  their  fathers,  grand- 
fathers, and  great-grandfathers  took  pride  in  a 
mount  and  a  rough  scurry  across  the  hills  and 
valleys  that  slope  to  the  Delaware  in  chase  of  poor 
Reynard.  In  no  place  in  the  United  States  has 
the  pastime  been  so  long  kept  up  or  so  largely 
practiced.  The  early  days  saw  no  regular  meets, 
no  scarlet  coats,  no  master  of  the  hounds,  and 
none  of  the  modern  day  attributes  of  the  perfect 
hunt,  but  the  sport  was  as  keen,  the  chase  as 
ardent,  the  runs  as  fierce,  and  the  jumps  as  bold 
as  the  modern  hunters  dare  boast  of.  Private 
parties  owned  the  packs,  and  a  few  congenial 
spirits  who  loved  the  old  English  excitement  kept 
the  sport  alive.  The  present  Rose  Tree  inn,  on  the 
old  Providence  road,  is  a  double  stone  dwelling. 


74  FOX    HUNTING. 

not  differing  much  in  its  outside  architecture  from 
other  mansions  of  the  kind  in  the  neighborhood, 
nor  from  the  ordinary  country  inns  of  eastern 
Pennsylvania.  The  earhest  portion  of  the  hotel 
was  built  in  1809,  and  was  duplicated  by  an  addi- 
tional stone  building  on  the  east  in  1836,  during 
the  time  George  Cummings  kept  the  hostelry. 
Prior  to  the  first  stone  building  there  was  an  old 
red  frame  building — a  relic  of  the  Colonial  days 
and  good  King  George  III — on  the  site,  and 
'neath  two  great  poplars  swung  the  sign  of  the 
'Rose  Tree,'  with  its  rose  bush,  which  some  of 
the  old  residenters  can  recall.  This  old  sign  was 
lately  found  in  a  disused  hay-rick  in  the  vicinity, 
and  was  handed  over  to  the  hunting  club,  who 
prize  it  very  much. 

"the  inn  in  early  times. 

"John  Kirk,  who  lives  within  a  stone's  throw 
of  the  inn,  and  who  is  a  remarkably  well-preserved 
specimen  of  the  old-time  country  gentleman,  can 
well  remember  the  old  frame  inn  and  its  early 
proprietorship  under  the  Cochrans — James,  who 
was  the  first  keeper,  and  then  his  son,  Isaac. 
Changing  hands  with  the  rushing  changes  of  time, 
the  old  inn  comes  down  patched  and  altered 
until  the  present  era,  but  always  retaining  its  old- 
time    title    and    ancient    reputation.      After    the 


FOX    HUNTING.  75 

hostelry  passed  from  the  Cummings  family  it  was 
kept  for  a  short  time  by  William  Beebe,  and  then 
went  into  the  hands  of  J.  Morgan  Baker,  the 
present  well-known  keeper  of  the  Delaware 
County  prison.  Under  Morg's  regime,  beginning 
in  1858,  the  present  Rose  Tree  Fox  Hunting  Club 
may  be  said  to  have  entered  on  its  career.  Baker 
laid  out  and  built  the  present  half-mile  track  ad- 
joining the  inn,  where  the  fall  and  spring  races 
are  now  held.  It  was  in  Baker's  time  the  old 
hunters  of  the  present  club  took  their  first  lessons. 
The  kennels  were  tended  by  him,  and  once  or 
oftener  a  week  boon  spirits  who  gloried  in  the 
chase  during  the  season  met  at  the  old  Rose  Tree. 
Well  do  we  remember  them '  Some  time  has 
touched  and  in  them  softened  the  old  boyish 
racket  and  spirit  with  which  they  were  filled  of  a 
keen,  frosty  morning,  when  the  light  flurry  of 
snow  threw  over  the  hillside  the  silvery  mantle  of 
winter  beauty,  they  met  to  give  the  cunning  fox  a 
death  chase — the  eager  hounds,  the  mettled  steeds, 
the  volunteer  whippers-in,  and  the  idle  gathering 
which  met  round  the  heels  of  the  hunters  to  sing 
praises  of  this  or  that  famous  leap  or  run  of  days 
before.  And  there  was  'INTay.'  faithful  old  slut — 
as  fine  a  fox  hound  as  ever  lived.  Peace  to  her 
ashes,  for  she  has  long  since  ceased  to  vex  Rey- 
nard! 


/O  FOX    HUxNTING. 


"who    COiMPOSED    THE    HUNT. 

"And  who  was  gathered  there  of  that  frosty 
morning  crowd?  Why,  there  is  Howard  Lewis, 
who  was  and  still  is — and  always  will  be — one  of 
the  most  active  of  the  Rose  Tree  Hunt — he  whom 
'age  doth  not  wither  nor  custom  stale'  in  the  ten- 
acity with  which  he  presides  at  Rose  Tree  suppers, 
nor  in  his  love  for  the  chase,  and  who  was  the 
first  President  of  the  club  under  its  early  and  in- 
complete organization.  A  hereditary  fox  hunter, 
he — lover  of  horse  and  dog,  and  patron  of  the 
chase.  There  also  in  the  mount  I  see  the  youthful 
Ned  Farnham — now,  alas !  gone  to  the  happy 
hunting  grounds — no  less  a  sturdy  lover  of  a 
cross-country  dash  than  Lewis,  full  of  ardor  for  the 
scamper  when  the  fox  is  heard  away.  Mr.  Farn- 
ham was  until  his  death  a  staunch  friend  and  sup- 
porter of  the  club.  Of  the  old  organizers  and 
hunters  were  Tom  Bishop,  Wash  and  Pratt  Bishop, 
Morg.  Baker,  George  Darlington,  Reece  and  Ned 
Lewis,  Ned  Worrall,  and  Ed.  Howard.  Many, 
alas!  are  gone,  but  they  were  stalwart  boys  in 
their  days,  and  'the  devil  take  the  hindmost'  was 
their  cry  as  the  hunt  oft  trended  in  its  wild  and 
fierce  glee  toward  the  divide  of  Ridley  and  Crum 
creeks  and  down  into  the  nooks  and  valleys  be- 
yond. Poor  Reynard's  chances  were  few  when 
this  hunt  gathered  and  the  hounds  were  in  full 


FOX    HUNTING.  yj 

cry,  with  hunters  close  behind.  In  the  old  days 
of  these  undisciplined  but  earnest  hunts  it  was  the 
custom  to  hang  near  the  kennels  at  the  Rose  Tree 
a  slate,  on  which  the  laggards  at  the  meet  could 
learn  the  direction  in  which  the  chase  lay  and  catch 
up  ere  the  finish. 

"the  present  club. 

"The  Rose  Tree  Fox  Hunting  Club  as  it 
exists  to-day  has  a  history  of  a  decade  or  more. 
Among  its  members  it  boasts  the  best  and  most 
fearless  riders  in  Delaware  county  and  those  most 
ardently  devoted  to  the  chase  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia. Mr.  Fairman  Rogers,  a  gentleman 
widely  known  for  his  love  of  field  sports,  quick 
reHsh  for  the  hunt  and  chase,  and  study  of  the 
noblest  of  all  animals — the  horse — is  one  of  the 
leading  members.  Alexander  J.  Cassatt,  Frank 
Thomson,  James  P.  Scott,  Charles  H.  Godfrey,  C. 
H.  Townsend,  Aubrey  Jones,  Moncure  Robinson, 
and  Dr.  Rush  S.  Huidekoper,  of  Philadelphia,  and 
J.  M.  Baker,  George  E.  Darlington,  Howard  and 
Samuel  Lewis,  Samuel  Miller,  George  Lewis, 
William  H.  Lewis,  and  many  others  of  the 
county,  are  members.  Dr.  Huidekoper  has  been 
connected  with  the  hunt  for  a  number  of  years, 
and  his  enthusiasm  and  liberality  have  done  much 
to  build  the  club  up  and  make  it  what  it  is — the 


78  FOX    HUNTING. 

finest  fox  hunting  club  in  America,  whose  riders 
are  famous,  whose  hounds  are  prized  for  breed 
and  quality,  and  whose  reputation  is  growing  with 
the  increased  love  and  interest  in  the  sport. 

"where  the  club   eats. 

"The  club  dinners  are  still  served  in  the  old 
Rose  Tree,  although  facilities  for  having  the  same 
are  provided  in  the  club  house.  The  building  is 
two  stories,  costing  about  $2,000,  and  is  elabor- 
ately finished  in  yellow  pine,  the  lower  story  being 
a  banqueting  room  and  the  upstairs  two  bed- 
rooms, for  the  convenience  of  those  coming  out 
from  the  city  to  the  hunts.  The  banqueting  room 
is  handsomely  furnished.  At  the  west  end  is  the 
old-fashioned  fireplace  and  crane  that  Longfellow 
sings  of,  and  adjoining  are  the  lockers  and  cases 
of  the  huntsmen,  where  their  scarlets  are  kept. 
On  the  walls  are  trophies  of  the  hunt  and  pictures 
recalling  thrilling  scenes  in  the  field.  Over  the 
fireplace  is  a  beautifully  mounted  fox  in  a  glass 
case,  the  gift  of  Vice-President  Saulnier  as  a 
memento  of  a  memorable  meet  at  'Hurricane  Hill,' 
the  country  seat  of  Mr.  Saulnier,  when  a  magnifi- 
cent hunt  followed  and  this  fox  was  killed.  A 
hanging  fox,  gift  of  Mr.  Fairman  Rogers;  a  grizzly 
bear  skin,  the  owner  of  it  slain  by  Dr.  F.  F.  Row- 
land in  the  Rockies,  and  a  picture,  many  hundred 


FOX    HUNTING.  79 

years  old,  of  a  hunt,  the  present  of  Dr.  Huide- 
koper,  together  with  many  fine  engravings,  com- 
plete the  interior.  The  club  house,  finished  in 
cottage  style,  presents  a  pretty  appearance  in 
juxtaposition  with  the  old  inn.  Back  of  the  race 
track  are  the  summer  kennels  of  the  dogs,  and  here 
is  provided  every  facility  for  keeping  in  order  a 
first-class  kennel.  Among  the  hounds  of  the  pack 
are  some  of  the  finest  in  America.  'Deal,'  one  of 
the  best  nose-hounds  of  the  club,  never  makes  a 
mistake  in  the  field.  'Trip,'  'Tuck,'  'Minerva,'  and 
'June'  are  also  familiar  to  the  old  hunters  of  the 
Rose  Tree  for  their  undeviating  perceptions. 
The  membership  of  the  Rose  Tree  is  now  nearly 
up  to  the  full  limit  of  lOO  and  comprises  many 
distinguished  names  of  the  city  and  vicinity.  The 
hunting  season  opens  December  ist,  and  from  then 
on  until  March  ist,  three  times  a  week  regular  hunt 
days  are  provided  for  the  club,  and  on  'bye-days' 
any  member  can  have  the  hounds  by  previous  ar- 
rangement. 

"Many  gentlemen  and  a  number  of  ladies  are 
often  found  at  the  meets,  and  the  rare  zest  and 
enjoyment  of  those  who  participate  in  the  hunt  is 
an  incentive  to  on-lookers  to  engage  in  the  sport. 
No  one  who  has  seen  the  full  cry  over  the  hills, 
the  scarlet  coats  rising  and  falling  on  the  uplands, 
the  deep  diapason  of  the  hounds,  can  imagine  the 


80  FOX    HUNTING. 

swelling  pleasure  of  the  pastime,  which  nowhere 
in  the  United  States  has  taken  such  a  deep  hold 
on  the  people  as  in  the  section  of  it  nigh  to  the 
Rose  Tree. 

"Last  evening  the  club  house  was  brilliantly 
lit  up  and  the  members  were  present  in  force  and 
had  the  usual  hospitable  supper  at  'Benny's.' 
Arrangements  were  completed  for  the  fall  race 
meeting  in  October  and  an  endeavor  will  be  made 
to  have  it  the  most  distinguished  of  any  yet  given. 
The  interest  in  the  sport,  the  facilities  of  the  club 
house  and  the  entrance  of  so  many  Philadelphians 
into  the  club  and  their  relish  for  the  pastime  be- 
speak a  largely  increased  notoriety  for  the  club. 
The  races  bring  out  to  Media  and  the  Rose  Tree, 
as  the  Goodwood  cup  does  abroad,  the  elite  of  the 
city,  many  of  whom  enjoy  the  beautiful  drive  down 
through  the  shaded  roads  in  their  handsome 
equipages. 

"No  more  ennobling  exercise  than  fox  hunt- 
ing— notwithstanding  the  frequent  false  criticism 
of  it — can  be  had,  and  it  is  a  true  Anglo-Saxon 
pastime.  Years  of  indulgence  in  it  has  bred  the 
spirit  in  our  English  cousins  that  triumphed  at  the 
Alma  and  Balaklava,  held  'the  thin  red  line,'  or 
fought  its  way  into  the  citadel  at  Lucknow.  The 
red  cross  of  St.  George  would  never  have  floated 
so  high  and  so  brave  aloft  on  rampart  and  mast- 


FOX    HUNTING.  8l 

head  had  not  some  of  the  fearless  British  blood 
that  backed  it — and  which  the  fox-hunting  gentry 
here  inherit — been  tinctured  with  the  strength  to 
face  bodily  peril  and  defy  ordinary  danger  in  the 
scarlet  coats  of  the  men  who  rode  cross  country 
to  the  hounds  ever  since  the  days  of  William 
Rufus." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HUNT    BREAKFASTS. 

The  first  hunt  breakfast  that  was  given  at  a 
private  house  was  given  at  the  house  of  J.  Howard 
Lewis,  in  Nether  Providence,  on  March  5th,  1877; 
but  farmers'  breakfasts  were  not  unusual  at  the 
Rose  Tree  club  house  with  the  eating  served  in 
"Benny's"  dining  room,  for  they  originated  in  the 
early  days  of  the  organized  club  and  were  well 
attended. 

A  description  of  the  breakfast  at  Mr.  Lewis's, 
and  of  the  hunt  that  followed  was  published  in  The 
Evening  Telegraph,  Philadelphia,  of  March  22d, 
1877,  and  is  as  follows : 

"how    a    FAVORITE    SPORT    IS    CARRIED    ON 
IN    DELAWARE    COUNTY. 

"The  extent  to  which  fox  hunting  is  carried 
on  near  Philadelphia  may  be  shown  from  the  fact 
that  at  a  hunt  that  started  from  the  Rose  Tree  on 


82  FOX    HUNTING. 

Inauguration  day  (March  5th),  there  were  in  the 
meet  nearly  100  hunters  and  133  hounds. 

"Wishing  to  get  an  insight  into  the  manner  of 
conducting  a  hunt,  our  reporter  took  a  trip  to 
Delaware  County  to  the  'meet'  of  the  Germantown 
and  the  Rose  Tree  clubs  at  the  stables  of  Mr. 
Howard  Lewis,  in  Springfield  township,  Delaware 
County,  and  about  three  miles  east  of  Media.  The 
road  from  the  latter  place  winds  through  a  rolling 
and  most  picturesque  country.  At  times  the  road 
winds  along  the  hillsides,  while  scores  of  feet  be- 
low we  can  see  the  low  flats  and  the  creek  flowmg. 
The  whole  face  of  the  country  seems  as  if  it  were 
formed  by  a  series  of  upheavals,  the  rocks  out- 
cropping here  and  there  on  the  hillsides,  and  some 
of  the  latter  well  covered  with  thickets  and  scrub 
growth  and  brush.  The  place  where  the  'meet' 
was  held  was  one  of  the  most  commanding  of  all 
the  country,  and  an  observer  could  see  for  several 
miles  about,  except  at  one  point  where  a  ridge  of 
almost  equal  height  was  covered  from  base  to  sum- 
mit with  small  growth.  There  were  assembled 
about  thirty-five  hunters  who  intended  to  take  part 
in  the  chase,  including  two  ladies,  Mrs.  S.  W.. 
from  Germantown,  and  Miss  IM.,  of  the  Rose  Tree 
Club.  Even  to  one  who  took  no  pleasure  in  the 
hunt  it  was  a  pleasant  sight  to  see  the  horses 
grouped   around,    some   of  them   very   handsome 


FOX    HUNTING.  83 

animals,  whose  points  as  good  runners  and  jumpers 
were  fully  discussed  by  the  several  knots  of  hunt- 
ing men  and  critics  who  thronged  the  well-filled 
stable,  comparing  notes  between  the  Rose  Tree 
Club  and  their  guests.  'Have  you  seen  the 
kennel  and  the  fox?'  inquires  the  proprietor. 
'Well,  come  along,  and  I'll  show  you  some 
beauties.  There  isn't  many  of  them,  only  two 
and  a  half  dozen,  as  the  English  would  say,  for 
they  can't  say  twenty-five  to  save  'em.'  Their 
kennel  w-as  a  moderate-sized  barn,  and  as  the  door 
was  shoved  along  to  permit  a  view,  there  was  a 
rush  of  many  feet,  and  such  a  concert  of  yells  as 
the  master  struck  at  them  and  forced  them  back, 
so  eager  were  they  for  the  field.  Their  eagerness 
illustrates  the  force  of  the  hunter's  answer  to  the 
sentimental  old  lady  who  was  taking  him  to  task 
for  indulging  in  the  cruel  amusement  of  fox 
hunting.  He  listened  patiently,  and  then  said : 
'Ah !  madam,  ye  canna  deny  that  the  hunters 
like  it,  I'm  sure  the  horses  like  it,  and  I'm 
certain  the  dogs  enjoy  it,  and  there's  no  one 
knows  that  the  fox  don't  Hke  it.'  There  were 
twenty-five  of  these  hounds,  nearly  all  of  them 
thoroughbreds,  and  some  valued  at  $35  to  $50 
each.  The  fox  was  then  inspected.  He  was  kept 
in  a  box,  the  top  of  which  had  slats  nailed  on  it  to 
prevent  his  escape.      He  was  caught  in  German- 


84  FOX    HUNTING. 

town,  and  sent  to  the  Rose  Tree  a  couple  of 
months  ago,  and  he  was  thought  to  be  rather 
tame,  so  much  so  that  one  of  the  ladies  incautiously 
put  her  fingers  inside  and  he  did  not  offer  to 
bite  it. 

"At  about  half  past  ten  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing the  last  straggler  had  come  into  the  'meet,' 
and  a  few  minutes  before  eleven  o'clock  the  fox 
was  taken  out  in  his  box  and  carried  to  a  good 
distance  and  to  such  a  position  that  none  of  the 
company  could  tell  where  it  was  taken  to. 

"Their  appearance,  dressed  in  their  hunting 
costume,  is  exceedingly  suggestive.  Some  wore 
short  jackets,  ordinary  trousers  tucked  into  their 
riding  boots,  and  carrying  riding  sticks  with  a  loop 
at  the  end,  and  all  kinds  of  hats  from  the  silk  to 
the  little  jockey  skull  cap.  One  old  hunter  tucked 
up  the  tails  of  his  coat  and  made  a  jacket  of  it, 
another  came  out  in  a  white  flannel  jacket,  and 
still  another  wore  a  costume  somewhat  like  a 
London  'old  clo'  man,  one  short  overcoat  with 
another  shorter  one  over  it,  and  white  corduroy 
trousers  were  plenty.  One  of  the  ladies,  Miss  M., 
w^as  dressed  in  a  blue  water-proof  riding  habit, 
rather  long,  and  the  other,  Mrs.  W.,  in  a  short, 
well-fitting  one  of  black,  and  both  wore  regular 
jockey  caps. 


fox  hunting.  85 

"the  hunt. 
"  'Give  him  a  start  of  fifteen  minutes,'  says 
the  master  of  the  hunt.  It  was  an  impatient 
time,  and  was  spent  in  talking  probabilities, 
'horse,'  and  looking  after  the  straps  and  saddles. 
'Time's  up !  mount !  mount !'  and  in  less  than  a 
minute  all  were  in  the  saddle,  the  pack  of  hounds 
slipped  and  dashing  up  the  road  with  tails  erect 
and  nose  in  air.  and  such  a  chorus  of  hoarse 
baying  and  sharp  yelps  that  must  have  tingled  the 
ears  of  the  fox  if  he  heard  it.  In  a  half  minute 
almost  the  whole  party  had  separated,  some  going 
one  direction,  some  another,  depending  on  judg- 
ment as  to  the  direction  to  be  taken.  'The  wind's 
from  the  south,  and  it  will  be  a  short  hunt,'  says 
a  looker-on,  'for  then  it's  always  so.'  The  hounds 
could  be  heard  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  the 
sound  was  lost  behind  the  hills.  The  two  ladies 
rode  splendidly  and  followed  the  hounds,  taking 
fences,  ditches,  and  everything  with  the  nerve  of 
veterans.  From  the  brow  of  the  hill  where  the 
spectators  stood  the  fox  was  easily  seen  from  the 
time  it  was  let  out  of  the  trap  until  the  first 
quarter  of  a  mile  had  been  run.  As  the  hounds 
struck  this  point  there  was  a  temporary  hush;  then 
a  deep  chorus,  and  they  rushed  in  a  solid  body 
along  the  trail.  In  less  than  half  a  minute  the 
liorsemen  and  the  two  ladies  could  be  seen  follow- 


86  FOX    HUN1ING. 

ing  over  the  rough,  rocky  ground  covered  with 
underbrush,  and  some  dashing  recklessly  through 
the  bushes  and  across  the  creek  that  flowed 
through  the  low  bottom  land,  and  then  the  whole 
passed  from  view  over  the  brow  of  the  hill.  What 
followed  is  told  by  the  hunters  on  the  return, 
which  was  about  noon,  the  hunt  having  lasted 
three-quarters  of  an  hour.  'It  was  a  short  and 
sharp  one,'  says  the  Secretary  of  the  Rose  Tree 
Club,  as  he  came  in. 

"The  first  indication  was  the  straying  in  of  a 
solitary  hunter  with  horse  and  self  well  splashed, 
then  a  limping  hound,  and  then  the  hounds  and 
the  hunters  them.selves.  The  latter  were  well 
splashed  from  toe  to  hat,  and  seemed  to  pride 
themselves  upon  the  amount  of  real  estate  in  a 
semi-liquid  state  that  each  could  carry.  The  ladies 
came  in  bearing  the  usual  evidence  of  hard  and 
reckless  riding,  and  soon  there  was  a  perfect  babble 
of  the  result.  The  fox  had  led  them  a  chase  of 
some  six  miles  around  and  about,  and  when  run 
down  by  the  hounds  the  first  ones  in  at  the  death 
were  Mr.  Ed.  Worth,  Mr.  William  Leiper,  Mr. 
George  Lewis,  Miss  M.,  and,  within  half  a  minute, 
Mrs.  W.  As  the  young  lady  was  in  almost  the 
first,  it  was  decided  to  give  her  the  brush,  or 
tail,  of  the  fox,  that  being  the  greatest  trophy  of 
the  hunt.     Each  of  the  ladies  had  a  foot,  and  the 


CJ 


FOX    HUNTING.  8/ 

gory  head  was  secured  by  Mr.  Howard  Lewis, 
and  came  in  hanging  from  his  saddle.  It  was  a 
very  handsome  head,  and  the  face  unmutilated, 
with  the  clear,  beautiful  eyes  as  bright  as  if  it  were 
alive.  It  will  be  stuffed  and  adorn  the  hunter's 
box,  a  room  fitted  up  in  the  stable,  adorned 
with  hunting  pictures,  foxes'  heads  stuffed, 
brushes,  horns  of  deer,  and  similar  trophies,  and 
in  which  they  have  the  reunion  after  the  hunt  to 
satisfy  their  keen  appetites  and  tell  the  story  of 
the  day  and  other  days.  The  club  consists  of 
sixty  members,  thirty  of  whom  are  active.  All  of 
them  own  their  own  mounts,  and  many  of  the 
horses  have  considerable  celebrity  as  hard  goers 
and  fine  jumpers.  On  this  occasion  there  were 
about  a  dozen  of  the  Germantown  Club  present, 
and  around  the  board  the  assembled  hunters  sang, 
*Auld  Lang  Syne'  and  told  some  remarkable 
stories  of  foxes  who  had  been  run  hard,  but  like 
the  asymptote  of  a  parabola,  were  continually  ap- 
proached but  never  reached.  There  was  one  fel- 
low who  jumped  right  over  a  fence  on  to  a  hound's 
back,  gave  it  a  vicious  snap,  then  leaped  right  be- 
tween two  large  packs  of  hounds,  looked  at  them 
one  instant,  and  was  away  like  a  flash  of  red 
lightning,  followed  by  the  whole  field.  That  fox 
led  them  everywhere,  and  at  nine  o'clock  at  night, 
when  the  hunt  broke  up.  it  was  as  far  off  as  ever. 


88  FOX    HUNTING. 

At  five  o'clock  the  meeting  broke  up,  and  the 
visitors  came  riding  into  town,  spattered  with 
mud  as  they  were.  There  is  no  question  that,  fol- 
lowed in  the  manner  it  is,  fox  hunting  is  a 
splendid  exercise,  and  calculated  to  make  splendid 
riders.  As  to  its  safety,  there  is  very  seldom  any 
accident.  There  are  numbers  of  ladies  who  enter 
into  it  with  zest,  as  many  as  half  a  dozen  riding  in 
a  single  hunt.  This  last  hunt  is  about  the  last  of 
the  season.  In  a  week  or  two  the  ground  will  be 
broken  for  the  growing  crops,  and  the  horses  will 
be  patiently  at  work,  dreaming,  perhaps,  of  the 
next  season. 

"Nearly  every  gentleman  residing  in  German- 
town,  who  possesses  a  horse  or  who  takes  pride  in 
horses,  is  in  greater  or  less  degree  identified,  if 
not  directly,  with  this  association.  Prominent 
among  the  usual  participants  are  George  Wistar, 
Esq.,  Henry  Miller,  George  Biddle,  Clement  Bid- 
die,  Charles  Newhall,  A.  J.  Cassatt,  Daniel  New- 
hall,  John  Welsh,  Mr.  Carpenter,  Joseph  M.  Rosen- 
garten,  Wm.  Rotch  Wistar,  and  Mr.  Johnson. 

"There  are  several  of  these  hunting  clubs  in 
Delaware  County.  Among  the  names  of  the 
members  of  the  clubs  are  some  of  the  most  sub- 
stantial men  of  the  county,  such  as  Messrs. 
Howard  Lewis,  Samuel  Lewis,  George  W.  Hill, 
Edward   Worth,    George    Lewis,    Samuel    Miller, 


FOX    HUNTING.  89 

Mitchell  Baker,  Wm.  Leiper,  Fairman  Rogers,  C. 
H.  T.  Collis,  Godfrey  R.  H.  Cooper,  C.  H.  Town- 
send,  Dr.  Bray,  H.  S.  Abbott,  A.  J.  Cassatt,  S. 
Welsh,  JMoncnre  Robinson,  and  other  prominent 
men  of  position."  .  ,  ,.     ;  . j 

■''■'- '  ■'■■■^'^'M 
Another  hunt  breakfast  followed  this,  later 
on,  given  by  Dr.  Huidekoper  at  the  "Orchard," 
near  Media,  and  this  was  generally  attended  by  the 
members  of  the  Rose  Tree  Club.  After  the  break- 
fast, a  fox  not  being  on  hand  for  a  hunt,  the  guests 
indulged  in  jumping  feats  over  the  division  fences. 
Mitch.  Baker  had  a  nice  young  horse  that  had  not 
been  hunted  much,  and,  wishing  to  show  him,  he 
had  the  Doctor  mo.unt  him  to  exhibit  his  jump- 
ing powers.  At  the  first  trials  at  a  new  four-rail 
fence  the  horse  balked,  and  Howard  Lewis,  on  old 
"Dan,"  gave  a  lead  over  it,  for  "Dan"'  never  re- 
fused. The  Baker  horse  was  pushed  close  after 
Dan,  and,  finding  he  must  jump,  he  made  the 
effort,  struck  the  top  rail,  and  fell  heavily  on  the 
other  side,  sending  the  Doctor  out  of  the  saddle 
scooting  over  the  frozen  ground.  Neither  horse 
nor  rider  were  hurt,  and  the  Doctor,  being  plucky, 
mounted  again  and  sent  the  horse  full  run  at  the 
fence,  in  a  return  jump,  which  he  cleared  beauti- 
fully and  established  a  jumping  reputation.  How- 
ard Lewis  says :   "That  is  the  way  to  do  it." 


90  FOX    HUNTING. 

Another  hunt  breakfast  was  given  stih  later  on 
at  the  house  of  Mr.  H.  E.  Saulnier,  Hurricane  Hill, 
in  Aston,  and  this  was  attended  largely  by  the 
jnembers  of  the  club,  as  well  as  by  other  fox 
hunters ;  a  fox  was  dropped  after  the  breakfast  and 
'a  good  hunt  had,  and  the  whole  affair  was  a  great 
success. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

HUNTS    WITH    THE    ROSE   TREE    HOUNDS. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  a  hunt, 
written  by  J.  Howard  Lewis  Sr.  and  published 
in  the  Delazvarc  County  Ainericou,  on  March  24th, 
1880: 

"Editors  American  : — Thinking  that  some  of 
your  readers  might  like  to  hear  an  account  of  one 
of  the  many  runs  of  the  Rose  Tree  pack  of  fox 
hounds,  I  will  try  what  I  can  do  in  the  writing 
line.  This  particular  meet  was  on  Monday,  the 
1 6th  of  February,  1880.  The  day  was  all  that  the 
most  exacting  could  wish — bright  sun,  with  the 
wind  northeast  and  not  too  fresh.  The  night  be- 
fore had  been  cold,  and  had  formed  a  crust  on  top 
of  the  ground,  but  the  morning  was  balmy,  and,  in 
fact,  everything  that  an  ardent  fox  hunter  could 
desire.  At  nine  a.  m.,  when  the  doors  of  the 
kennel    were    thrown    open,    out    burst    thirteen 


FOX    HUNTING.  QI 

couples  of  as  fine  fox  hounds  as  there  is  in  any 
kennel  in  the  United  States.  The  company  were 
mostly  in  the  saddle,  and  made  a  very  beautiful 
appearance.  Besides  the  regular  hunt,  there  were 
g-entlemen  from  Philadelphia  and  Germantown. 
There  were:  Miss  M.,  on  'Black  Bess,'  Mr.  F.  on 
'Drummer  Boy,'  Mr.  J.  on  one  of  Lorrillard's 
stock  of  horses;  Dr.  B.  on  'Cruiser,'  a  descend- 
ant of  the  famous  'Cruiser,'  of  Rarey  renown; 
Dr.  H.  on  'Pandora,'  and  several  others, 
dressed  in  the  most  faultless  attire  of  scarlet, 
cords,  and  tops.  The  party  now  rode  briskly  down 
toward  the  valley  of  the  Crum,  where  they  gener- 
ally find  on  Bear  Hill.  We  were,  however, 
doomed  to  disappointment;  but  we  pushed  on  for 
about  ten  miles  in  a  northerly  direction,  until  we 
came  almost  to  the  Leopard  tavern  in  Chester 
County,  when  we  turned  westerly,  and  still  not 
finding,  we  turned  southerly  toward  home.  And, 
right  here,  let  me  tell  of  a  little  incident  which  be- 
fell one  of  our  party  who  rode  his  horse  into  a  smart 
stream  of  water,  where  it  was  two  or  three  feet  deep 
and  full  of  hidden  boulders.  The  horse  slipped  on 
one  of  them,  and  falling,  both  horse  and  rider  were 
drenched.  He  jumped  to  his  feet  and  got  his 
horse,  and  the  party  coming  to  his  aid  with  their 
monkeys,  he  was  quickly  brought  up  to  par,  and 
mounted  for  the  chase.     He  was  onlv  fairlv  in  the 


9-3  FOX    HUNTING. 

saddle  when  it  was  'Tally-ho/  away  and  away  they 
all  went  like  parched  peas  off  of  a  shovel.  When 
we  raised  the  hill  behind  George  Miller's  farm,  you 
could  see  Reynard  in  the  distance,  with  the  eager 
pack  being  left  hopelessly  behind,  at  least  for  a 
time;  and  a  beautiful  sight  it  was  to  see  the  scarlet 
coats  striving  with  each  other  down  the  valley  of 
the  Crum.  A  small  party  with  one  scarlet  coat 
among  them  got  into  a  corner  with  a  high  wall 
down  into  the  road  and  a  high  picket  fence  on  the 
right,  both  of  which  were  pronounced  non-takeable, 
when  here  came  the  old  man  on  his  son's  steeple- 
chaser, 'Ajax,'  By  the  by,  the  old  fellow  is  gener- 
ally behind;  but  his  blood  got  a  little  raised  at  the 
sight,  and  pronouncing  it  all  right,  he  pounded 
down  into  the  road  nearly  on  to  his  horse's  head, 
and  called  to  Miss  M.  to  follow,  which  she  did  in 
beautiful  style.  They  turned  to  the  left  into  the 
field,  and  the  way  they  made  the  dirt  fly  it  was  a 
sight  to  see.  The  gentleman  in  scarlet,  in  leading 
his  horse  down  the  wall,  allowed  him  to  escape,  and 
he  was  forced  to  wend  his  way  on  foot.  We  will 
now  follow  Miss  M.  and  the  old  man,  who  caught 
sight  of  'Doc,'  the  Huntsman,  tearing  down  the 
Boot  road  toward  the  bridge  over  Crum  creek, 
and  hearing  the  hounds,  and  getting  an  occasional 
sight  of  them,  they  nicked  it  in  fine  style,  crossed 
the  bridge  still  on  the  Boot  road,  and  a  quarter 


FOX    HUNTING.  93 

of  a  mile  below  they  turned  to  the  right  into  the 
field  toward  Castle  Rock.  But  the  fox  and  hounds 
kept  down  the  east  side  of  the  Crum,  and  when  we 
came  to  the  old  tumbled-down  sawmill  we  saw  the 
hounds  crossing  the  creek  below  the  James  farm. 
We  crossed  where  we  were  and  scuttled  up  the 
hill,  just  in  time  to  meet  the  hounds,  at  fault  for 
the  first  time,  and  meeting  an  old  gentleman  on 
horseback  who  said  he  saw  the  fox  cross  a  certain 
field,  we  capped  them  on.  They  owned  the  scent 
and  went  away  back  toward  Castle  Rock,  but  on 
going  down  John  Davis'  hill,  back  of  the  barn,  they 
went  out  into  the  Edgmont  road  at  the  old  school- 
house.  Here  the  fox  had  kept  the  road  for  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile,  but  meeting  our  friend  in  scar- 
let, who  had  lost  his  horse,  he  turned  to  the  left  on 
the  Robert  Davis  farm  to  the  woods  belonging  to 
Levis  &  Hill.  There  he  seemed  to  have  been 
turned  by  some  woodcutters,  and  the  hounds  were 
at  fault  again,  only  for  a  few  moments,  long  enough 
for  every  one  to  get  in  again;  they  were  off  again 
at  a  scrambling  rate  across  the  Ridley  into  an 
abominable  thicket.  Here  the  old  man  says  he 
lost  his  specs,  and,  seeing  where  they  fell,  con- 
cluded to  risk  getting  ofif  for  them,  as  he  was  a 
little  short  of  money,  and  could  not  see  well  with- 
out them.  But  he  came  very  near  losing  the  hunt, 
which  would  have  been  a  great  deal  worse  loss. 


94  FOX    HUNTING. 

So  he  let  in  the  persuaders,  and  'Ajax'  brought 
him  up  in  about  a  mile  or  so  to  the  rest  of  us. 
It  was  hard  to  say  which  was  the  worst  blown, 
the  old  man  or  the  horse.  We  were  now  going 
out  of  a  by-road  on  to  the  road  leading  from  Lima 
to  Sugartown,  above  Jackson  Baker's.  We  there 
viewed  the  fox  going  for  Ridley  creek.  The  road 
here  is  straight  for  about  two  miles,  and  we 
thundered  along  at  a  killing  pace,  down  one  hill 
and  up  another,  the  hounds  streaming  along  only 
a  field  or  two  to  the  left  of  us,  but  gaining  a  little 
when  we  came  to  a  turn  in  the  road.  The  fox  had 
gone  a  little  to  the  right.  A  farmer  standing  there 
said  he  saw  the  fox  go  into  a  clump  of  trees  on 
the  top  of  a  hill  beyond.  Mr.  R.  here  let  down  a 
pair  of  bars,  as  the  horses  were  pretty  well  blown 
by  this  time,  and  in  we  all  went  on  to  a  beautiful 
grass  field.  An  old  woman  came  out  of  a  house. 
and  gave  us  a  furious  blast,  and  here  the  old  man 
forged  to  the  front.  He  must  have  been  aided  by 
the  blast  from  the  old  lady,  as  it  was  the  first  time 
he  had  been  to  the  front  during  the  chase.  And 
here  let  me  say  that  the  pace  had  shut  out  all  but 
eight.  Miss  M.  being  one  of  the  survivors,  riding 
as  no  other  lady  in  the  country  can;  taking  stone 
walls,  fences,  ditches,  mill  races,  and  all  manner  of 
obstructions,  without  being  unseated  in  the  least. 
But  to  our  fox.      On  the  top  of  the  hill  in  the 


FOX    HUNTING.  95 

clump  of  trees  the  hounds  were  at  fault  for  the 
last  time.  An  old  gentleman  was  there  and 
showed  us  the  way  of  him.  We  cheered  them 
on,  and  they  went  as  though  it  was  for  blood. 
We  then  crossed  some  farms,  and  came  out 
on  to  a  road  leading  to  and  close  by  the  inter- 
section on  the  Pennsylvania  railroad.  We  here 
turned  into  some  grass  fields  on  the  left.  By  this 
time  all  the  frost  was  out  of  the  ground,  and  when 
we  got  into  the  low  grounds  the  horses  \vent  blob- 
blobbing  along,  and  turning  up  the  sod  at  a  terrible 
rate,  but  we  went  on,  for  we  found  the  fox  was 
getting  slower.  So,  hurrying  over  the  next  farm 
and  down  a  steep  hill  in  a  wood  on  the  head  waters 
of  the  Crum,  we  hear  some  woodchoppers  right 
before  us  shout,  'He  is  holed!  he  is  holed!'  and 
there,  sure  enough,  he  was  under  a  rock  that  would 
weigh  at  least  a  hvmdred  tons.  The  woodchoppers 
said  he  was  very  much  draggled  and  generally  de- 
moralized, being  only  a  few  yards  before  the 
hounds.  jNIiss  M.  having  a  desire  to  peep  in  the 
stronghold  of  'the  old  thief  of  the  world,'  we  all 
dismounted  and  clambered  up  to  his  den.  After 
congratulating  Reynard  on  his  narrov\^  escape,  we 
turned  our  horses  toward  home,  which  we  reck- 
oned to  be  about  ten  or  a  dozen  miles  away.  The 
distance  covered  by  the  fox  we  estimated  to  be 
about  fifteen  or  twentv  miles.     As  v/e  passed  down 


96  FOX    HUNTING. 

the  hill  and  over  the  stream  to  the  public  road,  I 
noticed  the  old  man  and  Mr.  E.  staying  back. 
They  got  off  their  horses,  and  the  last  time  I 
looked  back  I  saw  one  of  them  raise  his  little  fin- 
ger very  high,  and  when  they  came  up  to  us  in 
a  few  minutes  they  seemed  to  be  very  much  re- 
freshed, so  much  so  that  I  felt  inclined  to  get  off 
the  next  time  we  crossed  the  Crum  and  take  a 
drink  of  creek  water  to  see  how  it  would  be  with 
me.  On  our  road  home  we  heard  that  our  friend 
who  got  tumbled  in  the  brook  in  the  morning  had 
gotten  a  much  worse  one  during  the  run;  in  fact, 
he  had  to  swim  to  get  out,  but  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  there  was  no  more  serious  accident,  and  every 
one  of  the  party  voted  it  the  best  run  of  the 
season,  and  that  fox  hunting  is  'the  sport  of 
kings,  the  image  of  war  without  its  guilt,  and  only 
five  and  twenty  per  cent,  of  its  danger.' 

"An  Old  Fox  Hunter." 

HUNT    WITH    YOUNG    HOUNDS. 

In  a  hunt  with  the  Rose  Tree  hounds  our  fox 
had  crossed  the  track  of  a  fox  which  two  other 
packs  were  running,  and  the  three  packs  getting 
together  created  confusion  and  a  loss  of  the  scent; 
the  hounds  scattering  in  different  directions.  A 
large  number  of  horsemen  collected  together  near 
Castle  Rock,  where  the  loss  was  made,  all  eager 


FOX    HUNTING.  97 

for  a  good  run.  After  some  delay  part  of  the 
hounds  struck  a  trail  leading  toward  Newtown 
Square,  and  most  of  the  hounds  of  the  several 
packs,  with  all  the  horsemen,  excepting  a  few, 
went  off  with  it.  Some  eight  or  ten  young  hounds, 
however,  were  crying  on  a  trail  across  the  West 
Chester  road,  and  were  heading  to  the  northwest- 
ward. Three  of  the  hunters,  Pratt  Bishop,  Dr. 
Huidekoper,  and  the  author  followed  these 
hounds.  Tliis  fox  was  soon  jumped  afresh,  and 
the  hounds  went  off  at  a  lively  pace  toward  the 
Paoli  Monument;  but  the  hounds,  being  young, 
needed  much  encouragement,  as  the  fox  was  a 
strong,  cunning  runner,  and  gave  work  that  might 
have  puzzled  older  hounds,  and  occasioned  many 
losses.  Our  youngsters,  however,  were  keen,  and 
kept  him  running.  As  the  afternoon  wore  on,  the 
fox  and  hounds  were  tiring,  and  as  the  fox  was 
taking  to  the  top  rails  of  fences,  the  young  hounds 
quit  and  laid  down  to  rest.  Then  the  hunters  had 
to  exert  themselves  to  get  the  hounds  to  keep  up 
the  running,  and  this  was  done  by  lifting  one  of 
the  best  of  them  to  the  fence  top,  holding  him 
there  until  he  could  smell  the  track,  and  when  he 
showed  he  had  caught  it  by  giving  tongue,  the 
rails  were  thus  tried  further  on,  and  finally,  when 
the  scent  could  no  longer  be  found  on  the  fence, 
a  cast  of  the  fields  was  made  to  get  the  track 


98  FOX    HUNTING. 

where  the  fox  had  left  the  rails.  Old,  experienced 
hounds  would  have  climbed  the  fences  to  get  the 
scent  themselves,. as  they  learn  to  do.  Many  trials 
and  casts  being  thus  made,  the  fox  was  run  close 
to  the  monument  before  he  turned  for  a  return 
toward  Castle  Rock.  Thus  we  followed  him  to 
near  nightfall,  by  which  time  he  was  well  dragged 
out,  and  so  were  the  hounds,  following  close  be- 
hind, until  crossing  a  corn  field  where  men  were 
husking  corn,  who,  not  being  lovers  of  the  sport, 
but  objectors  to  hunting  over  their  farm,  they 
stoned  the  hounds  from  the  track,  and  we  were 
forced  to  call  ofif;  the  cool  head  of  Pratt  Bishop 
preventing  a  row  with  the  uncivil  buskers.  Being 
some  eight  miles  from  the  kennel,  it  was  no  easy 
task  to  get  these  young,  tired  hounds  back  home, 
and  some  of  the  more  worn  out  and  foot-sore 
ones  had  to  be  taken  up  in  front  of  the  saddles. 
This  is  only  one  instance  out  of  many  of 
similar  work  done  in  a  hunt  in  those  old  hunting 
days;  but  it  rarely  happened  that  so  much  was  re- 
quired. This,  however,  will  show  what  encourage- 
ment can  be  given  by  energetic  hunters  who 
choose  to  make  a  study  of  the  sport,  and  who  arc 
determined  to  pusli  the  fox  to  hole  or  death. 


FOX    HUNTING.  99 

HOW    THE    CUNNING    OF    A    FOX    SAVED    HIS    LIFE. 

Can  a  fox  run  through  a  pack  of  hounds  and 
get  away?  He  can,  as  the  following  mention  of 
a  hunt  will  show:  A  fox  was  dropped  in  the 
meadow  below  Bishop's  mills,  now  known  as  the 
Sycamore  mills,  and  on  the  Middletown  side  of 
the  creek.  An  effort  was  made  to  drive  the  fox 
down  stream,  to  make  him  run  away  from  his  old 
running  ground,  as  he  was  a  quick  holer.  Before 
he  had  been  driven  far  the  hounds  either  broke 
out  or  were  let  out  purposely  before  the  allotted 
time  for  the  start,  and  came  down  the  meadow, 
scattered  all  over  it,  until  the  foremost  dogs  struck 
the  scent.  The  fox,  hearing  the  hounds  coming, 
turned  and  ran  directly  through  the  scattered  pack, 
making  for  a  bend  in  the  creek,  in  full  sight  of 
every  hound,  and  they  all  ran  directly  at  him. 
The  fox  reached  the  creek,  and  with  a  leap  got 
footing  on  a  rock  in  the  middle;  a  second  leap 
brought  him  to  the  opposite  bank,  and  a  slip 
through  the  road  fences  on  the  Providence  side 
gave  him  a  lead  on  the  hounds,  but  they  were  push- 
ing hard  after  him.  A  short  run  brought  the  fox 
to  a  field  where  was  a  flock  of  sheep  which  had 
huddled  together  in  fright  at  the  cry  of  the  hounds, 
and  into  the  middle  of  this  flock  the  fox  put  him- 
self, running  with  the  sheep  to  the  farther  end  of 
the  field,  where  he  slipped  through  another  fence 

7 


lOO  FOX    HUNTING. 

and  off  for  Powell's  rocks,  with  the  hounds  close 
after,  and  he  barely  had  time  to  get  under  a  rock 
and  save  himself.  The  excitement  was  great, 
every  horseman  striving  to  be  the  foremost,  and 
hoping  the  hounds  would  kill  before  the  rocks 
were  reached,  or  at  least  that  the  fox  could  be 
turned  from  them  and  forced  to  make  a  long  run. 
The  following  article  was  published  in  the 
Neiv  York  Herald  of  August  7th,  1887: 

"the  rose  tree  hunt,   near  media,  in 
delaware  county. 

"A  mile  and  a  half  from  Media,  the  county 
seat  of  Delaware,  a  flourishing  town  where  fifty 
years  ago  the  only  human  habitation  was  the  old 
Anvil  Inn,  stands  an  old-fashioned  building  from 
one  window  of  which  projects  a  swinging  sign. 
This  is  the  famous  Rose  Tree  Inn,  a  perfect  fac- 
simile of  the  old  public  houses  seen  in  that  part  of 
England  where  the  iron  horse  has  not  yet  made 
his  appearance.  On  the  sign  is  the  faded  sem- 
blance of  a  rose  tree.  Go  inside,  and  across  the 
little  garden  you  will  see  a  pretty,  modern  build- 
ing in  the  shape  of  a  long,  one-story  cottage. 
Though  quite  large,  it  contains  but  a  single 
spacious  room  or  hall,  with  a  wide  gallery  running 
around  three  sides  of  it.      This  is  the  Rose  Tree 


FOX    HUNTING.  lOI 

Hunt  Club  house,  where  the  members  meet  for 
pleasure  and  business  thirteen  times  a  year,  wnen- 
ever  there  is  a  full  moon.  An  elegant  supper  is 
served  in  the  'best  room'  of  the  inn,  after  whicli 
an  hour  is  devoted  to  business  and  the  rest  of  the 
evening  to  conviviality  and  good  fellowship,  with 
a  moonlight  drive  for  all  at  the  close.  The  mem- 
bers are  either  country  gentlemen  of  old  Quaker 
blood  from  Delaware  or  Chester  Counties,  or  rich 
Philadelphians  who  love  hunting,  own  good  horses, 
and  are  not  afraid  to  ride  them.  Across  the  road 
from  the  Rose  Tree  are  long  ranges  of  kennels, 
and  beyond  these  the  race  course  and  grand  stand. 
Every  autumn  a  Rose  Tree  Hunt  race  meeting  at- 
tracts the  beauty  and  fashion  of  Philadelphia  to 
witness  farmers'  races,  flat  races  for  members' 
horses,  and  steeple  chases,  with  club  members  'up.' 
over  two  and  a  half  miles  of  a  stifif  country  studded 
with  eighteen  jumps.  These  include  several  stone 
walls  and  some  particularly  nasty  post  and  rail 
fences. 

"One  of  the  thirteen  full  moon  suppers  came 
ofif  a  few  days  ago,  and  your  correspondent  joined 
a  party  from  Philadelphia  to  go  out  to  it.  Media 
is  twenty-two  miles  from  here;  a  forty-minute  trip 
by  rail.  The  country  is  lovely.  On  both  sides  of 
the  line  are  lovely  country  houses,  owned  by 
people,  many  of  them  whose  names  have  made  a 


102  FOX    HUNTING. 

Stir  in  the  world  and  about  whom  many  queer 
stories  have  been  told  or  written. 

*'One  of  the  staunchest  supporters  of  the  Rose 
Tree  Hunt  is  old  Mr.  Howard  Lewis,  the  wealthy 
paper  manufacturer,  who,  despite  his  seventy  years, 
charges  a  stone  wall  with  the  youngest  of  them. 
A  number  of  the  party  called  on  him  before  pro- 
ceeding to  the  Rose  Tree,  where  he  soon  after- 
wards joined  them.  His  owning  in  land  is  about 
a  thousand  acres  of  hilly  country.  His  mills  are 
on  his  place,  and  the  cottages  of  his  hands  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  'the  great  house.'  It  is  a  semi- 
patriarchal  arrangement,  with  which  everyone 
seems  satisfied.  A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Lewis  won 
a  steeple  chase  against  some  of  Philadelphia's  and 
Chester's  crack  riders.  He  rides  at  150  pounds 
— *tcn  stun  ten,'  as  the  English  have  it.  He  drives 
back  from  the  Rose  Tree  on  moonlight  nights  and 
tools  four  horses  along  the  steep,  narrow  road 
through  his  grounds  to  the  house  without  a  mis- 
hap to  spoil  the  record,  for  he  is  as  good  a  whip 
as  he  is  a  rider.  Lewis  made  the  paper  on  which 
the  Herald  was  printed  thirty  years  ago. 

"A  few  kind  words  and  a  parting  glass. 
Everybody  shakes  hands  with  Mr.  Lewis,  who 
waves  us  all  adieu  as  our  horses  breast  the  hill. 
At  a  turning,  half  hidden  in  the  foliage,  we  see 
what  seems  to  be  the  headstone  of  a  orrave.     One 


FOX    HUNTING.  IO3 

of  the  party  gets  out  to  read  the  inscription. 
Here  Hes  buried  Mr.  Lewis'  favorite  fox  hound. 
He  is  a  famous  breeder  of  these  animals. 

^ ' HIC      JACET 

'SLASHER. 

'mortuus  calendis  februarii, 

'mdccclxxv. 

'et   eg    canum    venaticam    meliorem 

nunquam  videre  speramus.' 

"trophies    of    the    CHASE. 

"The  road  in  front  of  the  Rose  Tree  is  cov- 
ered with  vehicles  of  every  description,  from  the 
four-in-hand  of  a  dashing'  young  lover  of  sport 
from  Bryn  Mawr,  Mr.  Mather,  who  brings  a  party 
of  friends,  to  the  modest  top  buggy  that  shelters 
my  friend  and  myself.  Everybody  gathers  in  the 
club  room,  and  members  produce  keys  that  open 
mysterious  lockers,  from  which  that  is  taken  which 
will  enable  old  and  young  to  struggle  with  the 
heat. 

"A  thin  old  gentleman  with  a  long  gray  beard 
comes  in.  Everybody  rises  to  greet  him.  Eight}- 
years  have  passed  over  his  head  without  destroy- 
ing his  liking  for  sport,  a  passion  than  which  there 
are  few  stronger  in  the  human  breast,  since  its 


I04  FOX    HUNTING. 

hidden  roots  go  back  to  the  time  when  man  had 
to  hunt  or  starve. 

"While  the  younger  members  gather  around 
this  Nestor  of  the  chase,  I  give  a  glance  at  the 
room.  Stuffed  foxes,  nearly  every  one  of  whom 
was  the  hero  of  a  great  run,  grin  at  you  from  little 
wooden  shelves.  In  the  centre  of  the  room,  on 
the  floor,  is  one  of  the  largest  buffalo  robes  ever 
skinned  from  the  animal.  Antlers  of  buck  and 
moose,  stufifed  birds,  and  a  whole  gallery  of  sport- 
ing pictures  complete  the  outfit.  The  fireplace  is 
an  old-fashioned  one,  as  large  as  a  small  room,  and 
furnished  with  a  crane  that  sets  one's  mouth 
watering  with  thinking  of  the  whiskey  punches  it 
has  supplied  hot  water  for. 

"One  of  the  stufTed  foxes,  whose  white  teeth 
gleam  in  the  twilight,  led  the  members  a  chase  of 
seventy  miles  before  he  parted  with  his  skin.  He 
was  run  to  earth  way  down  in  the  State  of  Dela- 
ware after  six  hours'  galloping.  Out  of  a  field  of 
sixty  only  four  were  'in  at  the  death.' 

"time  and   wind   up. 

"Supper  is  announced  and  about  forty  persons 
walk  over  into  the  inn's  big  dining  room.  Sam 
Lewis,  brother  of  the  veteran  Howard;  Richard 
Peters,  of  Media,  a  cousin  of  the  beautiful  l\Trs. 
Craig  Wadsworth,  who  died  universally  regretted. 


FOX    HUNTING.  IO5 

in  Washington,  some  years  ago;  George  Hill, 
Samuel  Miller,  William  Bullock,  George  Darling- 
ton, all  well-known  names  of  men  who  have 
toasted  each  other  from  boyhood;  Dr.  Huidekoper, 
of  Philadelphia,  the  ex-postmaster's  brother;  Sher- 
iff Rowland,  of  Media,  and  his  nephew,  the  doctor. 
It  is  'Willie,'  'Harry,'  'Jack,'  'Tom.'  You  don't 
hear  a  single  surname. 

"After  the  good,  pure,  wholesome  country 
food  has  been  done  justice  to,  cigars  are  lighted, 
and  a  brief  hour  is  given  to  discussing  arrange- 
ments for  the  autumn  meeting.  Then  merriment 
holds  undisputed  sw^ay,  and  song — from  a  young 
man  with  a  sweet  tenor  voice — is  making  the 
rafters  ring  to  : — 

"  'My  pretty  little  cruiskeen  lawn-lawn  lawn. 
My  pretty  little  cruiskeen  lawn.' 

"And  the  /echo  of  the  jolly  old  song  floats 
after  us  as  we  drive  home  in  the  moonlight  at 
break-neck  speed  to  catch  the  last  train." 

The  members  of  the  club  recollect  with 
pleasure  the  delightful  manner  in  which  Charlton 
Yarnall,  who  was  a  member  in  1891,  sang  his  old 
hunting  songs,  "The  Fox  Jumped  over  the  Garden 
Wall,"  and  "A-hunting  We  Will  Go,"  with  his 
peculiarly  rich,   clear,  and  expressive  voice;  and 


lOO  FOX    HUNTING. 

how  Cure  Robinson  sang  his  hunting  song,  "Tally 
ho,  Hark,  Away!"  with  all  present  joining  in  the 
chorus;  and  Howard  Lewis  Sr.  sang  his  songs, 
"Cruiskeen  Lawn,"  and  "J^dy  Callighan";  and 
Samuel  D.  Riddle  his  songs,  "Dad's  Dinner  Pail," 
"Never  Take  the  Horseshoe  from  the  Door," 
and  others.  The  singing  followed  the  supper,  and 
before  the  leaving  of  the  table.  Then  occasionally 
guests  present  enliven  us  with  songs,  anecdotes, 
music  and  witty  speeches,  and  none  can  be  more 
ready  with  such  a  speech  than  our  fellow  member, 
William  B.  Bullock. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

VISITING    OF    OTHER    HUNTS. 

The  club  had  many  energetic  members  be- 
tween 1875  and  1890,  and  they  kept  themselves  in 
close  touch  with  the  members  of  other  hunt  clubs. 
Winter  after  winter  they  visited  the  West  Chester, 
Pennsylvania,  Club,  taking  their  hounds  with 
them,  for  several  continuous  days'  hunting  in 
Chester  County.  They  also  in  like  manner 
visited  Chadd's  Ford  on  the  Brandywine,  and 
George  Miller's  in  Willistown,  and  at  Oxford, 
both  also  in  Chester  County.  At  the  latter  place 
they  hunted  with  Billy  Armstrong.     These  were 


FOX    HUNTING.  10/ 

jovial  occasions,  and  many  daring  and  reckless 
feats  in  horsemanship  were  exhibited,  which  are 
still  talked  over  among  the  members  of  the  club 
at  their  reunions. 

Several  of  the  members  of  the  Elk  Ridge  Fox 
Hunting  Club,  of  jMaryland,  near  Baltimore, 
among  them  being  William  Frick,  Fred  Schriver, 
Edw.  Murray,  and  a  Mr.  Jackson,  visited  the  Rose 
Tree  Club  for  a  week  of  hunting  in  1879,  bringing 
their  well-bred  horses  with  them.  They  unques- 
tionably were  good  and  bold  riders,  and  the  spot 
is  still  pointed  out  where  one  of  them  rode  his 
horse,  with  a  broken  saddle  girth,  in  a  hunt,  up  a 
sharp,  steep  hill  and  over  a  good,  stiff  fence  at  the 
top,  and  that  he  kept  his  seat  firmly  throughout 
was  a  wonder. 

The  Rose  Tree  men  made  a  return  visit  the 
following  winter  to  the  Elk  Ridge  Club,  taking 
their  own  horses,  and  among  them  were  Moncure 
Robinson  Jr.,  Dr.  Rush  S.  Huidekoper,  George 
]M.  Lewis,  W.  H.  Corlies,  and  C.  H.  Townsend, 
and  a  jolly  time  they  had  of  it.  It  was  on  this  trip 
that  "Pandora"  and  Robinson's  horse  had  a  race 
on  the  turnpike  one  moonlight  night,  and,  coming 
unexpectedly  to  a  toll  gate,  the  riders  found  the 
gate  closed  by  a  bar  across  the  roadway.  It  was 
too  late  to  check  the  horses,  and  "Pandora"  rose 
for  the  leap  too  close  to  the  bar,  which  she  struck 


I08  FOX    HUNTING. 

heavily  and  rolled  over  the  other  side,  spilling  her 
rider  headforemost,  but  v^ithout  serious  damage  to 
either.  Not  so,  however,  with  Mr,  Robinson's 
horse,  for  he  swerved,  and,  striking  himself  and 
rider  against  the  bar  post,  the  horse  was  crippled 
and  had  to  be  killed,  and  the  rider  was  lamed  for 
life. 

MEMBERSHIP    IN     1893. 

In  1893  the  club  roll  shows  the  following 
membership : 

Active  members:  George  W.  Hill,  Henry 
E.  Saulnier,  J.  Howard  Lewis,  Fairman  Rogers, 
George  M.  Lewis,  William  H.  Corlies,  A.  J.  Cas- 
satt,  Frank  Thomson,  William  H.  Miller,  George 
E.  Darlington,  Edward  Worth,  James  L.  Fisher, 
Humphrey  M.  Ash,  James  D.  Rhoads,  J.  Watts 
Mercur,  J.  Howard  Lewis  Jr.,  Herbert  Cox,  Wil- 
liam Wayne  Jr.,  William  M.  McCollum,  Charles 
E.  Mather,  Jared  Darlington,  Walter  M.  Sharpies, 
Walter  R.  Furness,  Carroll  Smyth,  Henry  R.  Hat- 
field, Walter  S.  Massey,  William  G.  Huey,  Joseph 
Lapsley  Wilson,  Samuel  D.  Riddle.  Lincoln  God- 
frey, John  Wyeth,  A.  H.  Tyson,  John  T.  Dohan, 
Richard  Peters  Jr.,  William  B.  Bullock,  Joseph 
M.  Dohan,  Henry  D.  Justi,  William  Little,  Dr. 
Charles  J.  Essig,  Dr.  Charles  A.  Dohan.  Alfred  S. 
Gillett,   Thomas   J.    Clayton,   John    B.    Robinson, 


FOX    HUNTING.  IO9 

Alfred  Gratz,  Charles  W.  McGlensey,  Simon  Del- 
bert  Jr.,  William  A.  Stotesbury,  Leander  W. 
Riddle,  Henry  G.  Sinnott,  Isaac  M.  Longhead, 
Geo.  F.  Martin,  Ivan  Fox,  William  A.  Lewis,  Wil- 
liam M.  Kerr,  Alexander  Y.  Davison,  John  H. 
Hawkins,  Fred  T.  Chandler,  C.  Fallon  Lewis, 
Harry  L.  Hippie,  Charles  B.  Jobson. 

The  honorary  membership  is  as  follows : 
Jefferson  Shaner,  Jesse  J.  Hickman,  Mark  Pennell, 
J.  Morgan  Baker,  Samuel  Miller,  John  J.  Rowland, 
Alexander  Pope  Jr.,  Boston,  Mass.;  William  I. 
Leiper,  Alexander  Brown,  Elk  Ridge  Hunt,  M.  F. 
H.,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Frank  Seabury,  Myopia  Hunt, 
M.  F.  H.,  Brookline,  Mass.;  F.  Gray  Griswold, 
Rockaway  Hunting  Club,  M.  F.  H.,  Far  Rocka- 
way,  New  York;  A.  Baumgarten,  Montreal  Hunt, 
M,  F.  H.,  Canada;  Moncure  Robinson  Jr.,  George 
B.  Adams,  Dr.  Rush  S.  Huidekoper,  Samuel  C. 
Lewis.  Charles  H.  Townsend. 

And  the  officers  of  the  club  were :  President, 
Henry  E.  Saulnier;  Vice-Presidents.  J.  Howard 
Lewis  and  George  M.  Lewis;  Secretary,  William 
H.  Corlies;  Treasurer,  Jared  Darlington;  Master 
of  Hounds,  George  W.  Hill;  Directors,  George  E. 
Darlington,  Humphrey  M.  Ash,  William  Little, 
and  Simon  Delbert  Jr. 

A  number  of  the  members  on  the  roll  of  1882 
were  dead  at  this  time  and  others  had  dropped 


no  FOX    HUNTING. 

from  membership,  and  still  others  were  placed 
on  the  honorary  list.  The  contribution  member- 
ship had  ceased  and  was  a  thing  of  the  past. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

GEORGE    W.     HILL,    M.    F.    H. 

George  W.  Hill  continued  in  the  office  of 
Master  of  Hounds  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  on 
March  30th,  1900,  having  faithfully  performed  the 
duties  of  that  position  for  twenty-six  years.  He 
had  a  great  fondness  for  horses  and  dogs,  and  was 
an  ardent  fox  hunter,  and  maintained  for  the 
club  one  of  the  best  packs  of  x^merican  hounds  in 
the  county  or  State,  and  Delaware  County  could 
always  boast  of  having  some  of  the  best  packs  of 
American  hounds  in  the  country.  Being  a  dealer 
in  horses,  he  furnished  to  lovers  of  the  chase  many 
excellent  cross-country  horses. 

Mr.  Hill  was  born  in  the  old  borough  of 
Chester  in  1825,  and  was  seventy-five  years  of  age 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  At  an  early  age  he  w^ent 
with  his  parents  to  reside  at  Rockdale,  now  Glen 
Riddle,  and  lived  there  a  number  of  years,  his 
father  conducting  mills  and  stores,  recently  owned 
by  Samuel  Riddle.  While  there,  at  the  age  of 
about  sixteen  years,  he  received  his  early  train- 


FOX    HUNTING.  Ill 

ing  in  fox  hunting'  under  the  skilled  tuition  of  that 
now  venerable  and  highly  respected  old  fox  hunter, 
Mr.  Mark  Pennell,  who  also  gave  his  first  lessons 
to  John  Mahoney.  Some  years  later  Mr.  Hill 
went  to  live  on  a  farm  in  Middletown  township, 
and  there  continued  his  hunting  experience  up 
to  the  time  he  came  to  Media  to  live.  He 
hunted  actively  with  the  Rose  Tree  Club  hounds 
up  to  about  two  years  before  his  death,  when  a  fall 
of  his  horse  in  the  hunting  field  disabled  him;  but 
he  afterwards  resumed  riding  in  the  winter  of  1898- 
99,  and  still  rode  some  little  the  winter  before  his 
death,  although  much  shattered  in  health,  and 
still  kept  up  an  active  interest  in  the  club  affairs. 
His  reputation  as  a  Master  of  Hounds  of  one  of 
the  oldest  and  best  hunting  clubs  in  the  country 
was  widely  known,  and  he  was  highly  esteemed 
and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him. 

EXPERIMENT     WITH     ENGLISH     HOUNDS. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  organized  club,  after 
J.  Edward  Farnum  became  a  member,  he  im- 
ported from  England  some  of  the  best  English  fox 
hounds  that  could  be  obtained,  and  put  them  into 
the  Rose  Tree  pack,  being  of  opinion,  after  seeing 
the  running  of  English  hounds  in  their  own 
country,  that  our  American  hounds  could  be  im- 
proved by  this  cross  strain  of  blood.     But  a  few 


IJ2  FOX    HUNTING. 

seasons  of  trial  satisfied  Mr.  Farnum  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  club  that  the  English  hound  could  not 
compete  with  the  American  in  our  hunting  fields, 
either  in  nose,  voice,  or  endurance,  and  the  ex- 
periment was  not  a  success. 

The  Radnor  Club,  of  this  county,  after  their 
organization,  experimented  with  a  pack  of  English 
hounds  for  several  years,  but,  for  some  reason,  are 
now  doing  their  hunting  with  American  hounds 
only. 

LADY    RIDERS. 

Ladies  rode  with  the  Rose  Tree  Club  hounds 
as  far  back  as  1878,  and  for  several  years  after,  and 
they  were  as  daring  lady  riders  as  the  American 
hunting  field  has  ever  had.  Many  stories  are  told 
by  the  old  hunters  how  fences  and  walls,  that  were 
refused  by  the  less  bold  gentlemen  riders,  were 
fearlessly  taken  in  a  flying  leap  by  these  ladies. 

WELLS    ROGERS,    HUNTSMAN. 

Wells  Rogers,  usually  called  "Doc"  Rogers, 
was  appointed  Huntsman  of  the  pack  in  Novem- 
ber, 1878,  and  has  filled  the  position  to  the  present 
time,  having  full  charge  of  the  feeding  and  care  of 
the  hounds  in  the  kennel,  and  of  the  hunting  of 
them  in  the  field:  and  so  long  has  he  thus  served, 
as  well  as  in  taking  charge  of  the  club  house,  that 
he  seems  to  be  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  club. 


o 


FOX    HUNTING.  II3 

HOUNDS    AND    KENNELS. 

After  Mr.  Hill  became  President  and  took 
charge  of  the  pack,  the  club  purchased  its  hounds 
largely  from  Maryland  and  Virginia  through  him; 
their  number  being  increased  at  one  time  up  to 
about  fifty.  They  were  kept  in  the  kennels  winter 
and  summer,  the  club  having  then  a  summer  ken- 
nel on  the  road  to  Paxson's  Hollow,  on  the  Rogers 
property,  called  "Saratoga,"  which  was  well  shaded 
and  had  a  running  stream  of  water  through  it. 
This  was  given  up  after  several  years'  trial  by 
reason  of  its  distance  from  the  club  house,  and  the 
difficulty  in  giving  it  proper  superintendence;  and 
the  pack,  having  been  reduced  to  twenty-five  or 
thirty  hounds,  were  then  kept  constantly  in  the 
old  kennel  near  the  club  house. 

OFFICERS    OF    THE    CLUB. 

J.  Howard  Lewis,  who  is  now  in  his  eighty- 
sixth  year  of  age,  was  elected  Vice-President,  and 
George  M.  Lewis,  Second  Vice-President,  in  Oc- 
tober, 1880,  and,  by  re-elections,  both  have  served 
in  the  same  official  positions  to  this  time. 

Henry  E.  Saulnier  was  elected  President  of 
the  club  in  October,  1884,  and  has  continued  in 
that  position  to  the  present  time,  and  he  is  now  in 
his  ninety-first  year  of  age. 

The  genial  disposition  of  Mr.  Saulnier,  with 


114  FOX     HUNTING. 

his  natural  inborn  gentle  and  manly  character,  and 
his  polite  and  courteous  manner  in  his  intercourse 
with  others,  and  all  his  social  and  excellent  char- 
acteristics, has  greatly  endeared  him  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  club,  and  made  him  highly  popular 
with  them,  winning  their  love  and  respect.  The 
activity  and  interest  he  has  always  displayed  in  the 
affairs  of  the  club,  and  his  regular  attendance  at 
its  business  meetings  and  social  gatherings,  makes 
one  forget  his  four  score  and  ten  years,  and  to  still 
class  him  among  its  active  members.  For  many 
years,  and  even  after  he  arrived  at  an  age  that 
might  have  been  considered  old  in  others,  he  fol- 
lowed the  hounds  in  the  hunting  field  with  an  en- 
thusiasm that  many  a  younger  man  might  have 
been  proud  to  emulate.  His  presence  at  the 
gatherings  of  the  club  is  always  greeted  with  the 
greatest  enthusiasm  and  pleasure. 

This  may  also  be  well  said  of  J.  Howard  Lewis, 
who,  although  he  has  passed  his  four  score  years, 
still  backs  a  horse  with  a  grit  and  fine  display  of 
superior  horsemanship  that  creates  for  him  an  en- 
thusiastic pride  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-mem- 
bers. His  seat  at  the  table  at  the  club  suppers, 
from  the  first  of  these  monthly  entertainments,  has 
invariably  been  in  front  of  the  dish  of  roast  pig, 
for  he  is  an  expert  carver  of  this  luscious  viand, 
and  cannot  be  excelled.     The  eves  of  all  the  table 


FOX    HUNTING.  II5 

are  fixed  upon  him  when  he  begins  his  work,  to 
watch  the  dexterous  cut  in  the  severing  of  the 
head,  and  the  long  cut  along  the  backbone  from 
neck  to  tail  in  laying  the  pig  open  for  carving  into 
plate  pieces.  No  one  knows  better  than  he  where 
to  find  the  choice  parts  and  how  to  adorn  it  with 
a  slice  of  well-browned,  crisp  skin,  and  with 
savory  filling. 

George  W.  Hill  was  elected  Master  of  Hounds 
in  October,  1884,  being  the  first  elected  Master  of 
the  incorporated  club. 

In  1887,  the  club,  feeling  the  necessity  for  an 
active  Board  of  Directors,  elected  as  Directors  in 
October  of  that  year,  George  E.  DarHngton,  H. 
M.  Ash,  Richard  Peters  Jr.,  and  H.  R.  Hatfield, 
the  President,  Secretary,  and  Treasurer  being 
ex-officio  members  of  the  Board.  Mr.  Darlington 
is  still  a  Director,  and  Mr.  Ash  served  to  about 
the  date  of  his  death  in  1900.  William  Little  and 
Simon  Delbert  Jr.  took  the  places  of  Mr.  Peters 
and  Mr.  Hatfield  on  the  Board;  the  Board  now 
consists  of  Mr.  Little,  Mr.  Darlington,  Walter  T. 
Roach,  and  Emanuel  Hey. 

The  Board,  after  its  election  in  1887,  imme- 
diately organized  by  the  appointment  of  a  Chair- 
man and  Secretary,  held  regular  monthly  meet- 
ings, kept  minutes  of  its  proceedings;  took  full 
charge  of  the  property  and  finances  of  the  club, 

8 


Il6  FOX    HUNTING. 

and  proceeded  to  get  it  into  sound  and  regular 
business  running  shape,  which  the  Board  soon  suc- 
ceeded in  doing,  and  in  which  condition  it  has  con- 
tinued to  the  present  time. 

In  October,  1888,  Jared  DarHngton  was 
elected  Treasurer,  and  William  H.  Corlies  was 
re-elected  Secretary  of  the  Club,  and  they  have  re- 
tained these  positions  to  this  time. 

Of  recent  years  the  club  employs,  during  the 
hunting  season,  an  Assistant  Huntsman  and  a 
Whipper-in,  to  help  in  the  hunting  of  the  hounds 
in  the  field,  as  well  as  in  the  care  of  them,  and 
these  positions  are  well  filled  by  Samuel  McClure 
and  Charley  Miles. 


CHAPTER  XVH. 


FEATURES    OF    THE    CLUB. 


The  club  members  have  always  kept  up  their 
friendly  relationship  with  the  farmers  of  the 
county,  by  avoiding  injury  to  grain  or  sod  fields, 
and  every  effort  is  made  to  prevent  the  riding  over 
such  fields  in  soft  weather.  Any  damages  done 
to  fowls,  sheep,  or  other  domestic  animals  by  the 
hounds  of  the  pack,  or  to  fences  and  enclosures 
by  the  hunters,  are  promptly  paid  for  by  the  club. 

The  prejudice  of  the  old  members  of  the  club 


FOX    HUNTING.  1 17 

against  any  unfair  treatment  of  the  fox,  by  bag 
hunting,  digging  out  when  he  had  been  run  to 
earth,  and  the  destroying  of  their  harbors,  has 
been  instilled  into  the  present  membership,  and 
such  unsportsmanlike  practices  are  not  indulged  in 
or  countenanced  by  this  club. 

The  serious  opposition  to  bag  hunting  is  that 
it  encourag^es  the  digging  out  of  foxes;  and  if  the 
fox  is  not  killed  in  the  bag  run,  he  is  so  scared  by 
his  capture  and  confinement,  that  he  quits  the  part 
of  the  country  he  has  been  living  in,  and  where 
he  has  given  sport  to  hunters.  This  is  the  reason 
fox  hunters  seldom  dig  out  foxes  on  their  own 
grounds  or  runs;  and  those  who  do  dig  them  out, 
as  a  rule,  do  the  digging  on  the  grounds  of  other 
hunters,  and  this  has  always  been  considered  a 
mean  act  and  not  honorable.  Then  another  ob- 
jection is,  that  a  captured  fox  which  has  been  con- 
fined for  a  week,  ten  days,  two  weeks,  or  more,  as 
is  generally  the  case,  in  a  damp  cellar  or  in  a 
close  room  on  a  board  floor,  is  not  in  fair  run- 
ning condition  to  be  thrown  down  before  a  pack 
of  hounds  for  a  run;  and  the  fifteen,  or  twenty,  or 
more  minutes  given  him  as  a  start  is  of  little  ad- 
vantage to  the  fox,  merely  giving  him  time  to 
shake  himself  together  or  to  fill  himself  with 
water  at  a  running  stream,  a  disadvantage  to  him, 
and  if  in  a  strange  country  he  certainly  cannot  de- 


Il8  FOX    HUNTING. 

termine  how  or  where  to  run.  But  the  fact  is,  in 
most  instances,  the  fox  will  run  off  into  cover, 
and  there  sit  down  or  waste  his  time  until  the  re- 
leased hounds  get  well  on  him.  In  almost  every 
case  the  run  is  short;  if  the  fox  knows  the  country 
he  may  hole  and  escape,  if  he  does  not  he  is  surely 
killed. 

Then  this  digging  out  of  foxes  induces  bag 
hunting  from  country  taverns,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  landlords  in  the  sale  of  liquors  to  the  indis- 
criminate crowds  that  assemble  on  such  occasions; 
for,  rest  assured,  the  hunt  has  been  well  advertised 
in  the  days  the  fox  is  in  captivity.  In  times  past 
where  the  fox  was  speedily  killed,  it  was  openly 
charged  that  he  had  been  crippled  before  being- 
turned  out,  in  order  that  the  run  would  be  short, 
to  assure  the  return  of  the  crowd  to  the  tavern  for 
the  further  benefit  of  the  landlord.  In  former 
years  these  tavern  fox  hunts  were  much  more  fre- 
quent than  now,  but  there  are  still  many  country 
taverns,  and  if  the  digging  out  of  foxes  is  encour- 
aged, there  is  no  reason  why  the  frequency  of 
tavern  hunts  should  not  be  revived.  These  hunts 
were  always  a  source  of  annoyance  to  farmers  of 
the  neighborhood,  for.  in  the  irresponsible  mass 
participating,  there  were  many  riders  who  had  no 
regard  for  the  rights  of  the  land  owners,  and  fences, 
lawns,  and  grain  fields  were  injured  recklessly. 


FOX    HUNTING.  II9 

A  few  men  who  keep  hounds  boast  of  the 
number  of  foxes  they  have  dug  out  in  a  season; 
some  ranging  up  to  large  numbers;  and  they,  no 
doubt,  furnish  bag  foxes  to  other  hunts  where  the 
preservation  of  foxes  is  not  properly  considered 
by  the  members. 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 

THE    PRESENT    MEMBERSHIP. 

The  following  is  the  present  list  of  active 
members :  Henry  E.  Saulnier,  J.  Howard  Lewis, 
George  M.  Lewis,  William  H.  Codies,  A.  J.  Cas- 
satt,  William  H.  Miller,  George  E.  Darlington, 
James  L.  Fisher,  Carroll  Smyth,  William  Wayne 
Jr.,  Charles  E.  Mather,  Jared  Darlington,  Walter 
M.  Sharpies,  Henry  R.  Hatfield,  Walter  S.  Mas- 
sey,  William  B.  Bullock,  Jos.  Lapsley  Wilson, 
William  G.  Huey,  Lincoln  Godfrey,  J.  Howard 
Lewis  Jr.,  John  Wyeth,  Samuel  D.  Riddle,  John 
T.  Dohan,  Joseph  M.  Dohan,  Henry  D.  Justi, 
William  Little,  Dr.  Charles  A.  Dohan,  Simon 
Delbert  Jr.,  William  A.  Stotesbury,  Leander  W. 
Riddle,  Ivan  Fox,  William  M.  Kerr,  John  H. 
Hawkins,  Frederick  T.  Chandler,  Henry  L. 
Hippie,  William  W.  Whitney,  Thomas  R.  Tunis, 
Edwin  Codies,  Washington  W.  James,  William  S. 
Bunting,  Alfred  L.  Hawkins,  Harrison  K.  Caner, 


120  FOX    HUNTING. 

E.  Shirley  Borden,  Emanuel  Hey,  Edward  B. 
Chase,  Walter  T.  Roach,  Samuel  A.  Rohrer, 
Francis  G.  Taylor,  J.  Herbert  Ogden,  William  L. 
Barker,  Harry  J.  Doyle,  John  C.  Grady,  Walter 
D.  Griscom,  E.  Sanford  Hatch,  William  S.  P. 
Shields,  William  H.  Sayen,  W.  F.  Presgrave,  E. 
A.  McFarland,  G.  W.  Rudolph,  John  F.  Huneker, 
William  E.  Carter,  William  Conway,  G.  D.  Gideon, 
General  Edward  Morrell,  Dr.  Edward  Martin, 
Frank  W.  Raker,  J.  M.  Bullock,  W.  B.  Bratton, 
Irwin  N.  Megargee,  Dr.  Theodore  L.  Adams,  Dr. 
Charles  H.  Schoff,  F.  H.  Fleer,  H.  Percival  Glen- 
dinning,  Edward  Crozer,  George  R.  Fox,  Frank 
T.  Downing,  C.  H.  Bean,  Victor  J.  Petry,  Ernest 
R.  Yarnall,  Dr.  J.  N.  Risley,  General  George  R. 
Snowden. 

The  honorary  membership  list  has  not  been 
increased  from  the  one  given  for  1893. 

From  the  time  of  the  election  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  before  alluded  to  and  organized  by  the 
election  of  a  Chairman  and  Secretary  and  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  House  Committee  the  Board  has 
been  holding  its  regular  meetings,  minutes  of 
which  have  been  fully  kept.  The  club  has  also 
been  holding  monthly  business  meetings  very 
regularly,  and  the  organization  is  thoroughly  com- 
plete. 

Mr.  Simon  Delbert  was  a  very  active  member 


FOX    HUNTING.  121 

of  the  House  Committee,  and  the  chib  house  con- 
tains many  reminders  of  his  good  taste  and  judg- 
ment in  its  furnishing  and  arrangement  of  its  con- 
tents. He  has  also  bred  at  his  country  home 
some  very  good  hounds  for  the  kennel. 

THE     ROSE     TREE     CLUB     HOUNDS. 

The  kennels  contain  thirty-two  long-eared 
American  hounds  for  active  hunting  on  the  three 
regular  days  of  each  week;  and  ten  young  hounds 
of  the  club's  own  raising,  now  in  training.  The 
present  disposition  of  the  club  is  to  again  raise  its 
own  puppies  by  breeding  from  good  American 
stock.  The  names  of  the  older  hounds  are  as 
follows:  "Jerry,"  "Charlie,"  "Roamer,"  "Tom," 
"Ringwood,"  "Reynard,"  "Trim,"  "Loafer," 
"Racket,"  "Black  Lead,"  "Rattler,"  "Rowdy," 
"Sailor,"  "Nero,"  "Buck,"  "Hunter,"  "Fashion," 
"Sweetheart,"  "Blossom,"  "Betty,"  "Screamer," 
"Clipper,"  "Shpper,"  "Rose," "Quinine,"  "Queen," 
"Milo,"  "Jack,"  "Delaware,"  "Jeff,"  "Traveler," 
and  "Kie";  and  the  young  hounds  are  named: 
"Bert,"  "Duke,"  "Silver,"  "Princess,"  "Colonel," 
"General,"  "Milo,"  "Bonnie,"  "Hey,"  and  "Man." 

A  true  American  fox  hound,  when  once  he 
strikes  the  scent  of  a  fox  track,  will  never  leave 
it  for  the  track  of  any  other  animal;  and  when 
running  a  fox  on  a  hot  scent  cannot  be  called 


122  FOX    HUNTING. 

from  and  it  is  difficult  to  beat  him  from  it.  Every 
old  hound  runs  with  his  own  ambition  to  kill,  and 
if  the  pack  by  chance  gets  lost  from  him,  will  run 
as  hard  alone  as  he  will  in  company. 

Hounds  run  best  with  their  own  pack,  and 
when  brought  in  contact  with  other  packs  in  the 
field,  the  younger  hounds  become  excited,  un- 
steady, and  wild  in  their  work. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  club,  Mr.  Ed- 
ward B.  Chase,  is  keeping  hounds  for  his  own 
amusement  at  his  home  in  Upper  Darby  town- 
ship; and  we  understand  he  is  undertaking  the 
selecting  of  hunting  packs  of  fifteen  American 
fox  hounds  for  each  pack,  by  breeding,  purchase, 
and  training,  so  the  hounds  shall  bunch  together 
in  hunting  and  running.  We  have  no  doubt, 
with  his  energy,  determination,  experience,  and 
skill,  that  he  will  succeed,  and  he  should  be  en- 
couraged. The  advantage  will  be  found  to  be 
great,  for  the  lack  of  attention  to  the  selecting  of 
hounds  spoils  many  a  large  pack;  as  a  few  bad 
hounds  in  a  pack  will  ruin  young  hounds  and 
make  them  run  off  on  a  dog  or  any  other  animal 
track  they  strike,  as  quickly  as  on  a  fox  track,  and 
will  also  teach  them  to  worry  sheep,  hogs,  and 
fowls.  They  are  also  sure  to  make  a  straggling 
pack  in  the  field,  from  indisposition  to  run  in  with 
the  good  hounds  that  follow  the  fox  closely. 


FOX    HUNTING.  I23 

There  should  be  harmony  in  the  pack,  and  it 
should  be  composed  of  well-bred  hounds  of  equal 
energy,  steadiness,  endurance,  and  fleetness  of 
foot.  A  pack  of  ten  or  fifteen  hounds  of  this 
character  will  give  better  results  and  satisfaction 
than  a  pack  of  twenty-five  or  forty  hounds  not  well 
selected.  They  may  require  harder  riding  to  keep 
in  with,  but  the  rider  is  not  confused  by  the  cry 
of  straggling  hounds. 

LOCATION     OF    KENNELS. 

The  kennels  are  still  on  the  lot  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Providence  road  from  the  club  house, 
a  part  of  the  hotel  property.  The  lot,  besides 
being  shaded  by  a  fine  chestnut  grove,  commands 
a  beautiful  and  extensive  view  of  the  valley  of  the 
Crum.  The  lot,  as  now  enclosed  with  its  high 
board  fence  and  race  track,  was  originally  fitted 
up  for  the  Delaware  County  Agricultural  Society 
exhibitions,  in  about  1865  (the  Delaware  County 
Institute  of  Science  building,  erected  in  1837,  and 
so  used  here  until  1867,  being  located  near  it),  and 
the  annual  autumn  exhibitions  of  the  society  were 
held  on  this  lot,  using  the  Institute  building  for 
the  exhibitions  of  contributions  of  handiwork  by 
ladies,  and  of  fruit,  flowers,  vegetables,  seeds,  etc. 
The  track  was  used  for  exhibitions  of  trotting 
contests,  with  some  running  races.     The  outbreak 


124  FOX    HUNTING. 

of  the  war,  in  1861,  ended  the  existence  of  this 
society  for  several  years,  and  no  further  such  ex- 
hibitions were  held  there.  At  other  times  the  track 
was  used  for  speeding  and  training  horses  and  for 
private  races,  until  the  Rose  Tree  Hunt  Club  be- 
gan to  hold  their  annual  fall  race  meetings  there. 
At  this  time  members  of  the  club,  by  individual 
subscriptions,  erected  the  grand  stand,  as  now  lo- 
cated, and  the  judges'  stand;  the  only  change  that 
has  been  made  was  the  removal  of  the  roof  or 
covering  from  the  grand  stand,  which  was  done  in 
the  fall  of  1900,  for  improvement,  by  a  race  com- 
mittee; and  the  judges'  stand  was  rebuilt. 

The  present  kennels  were  erected  on  this  lot 
within  a  few  years  after  George  W.  Hill  became 
President  and  acting  Master  of  the  Club — and 
these  being  the  first  kennels  erected  in  this  part  of 
the  country,  they  were  erected  more  particularly 
for  winter  packing;  the  summer  comfort  of  the 
hounds  was  not  considered.  The  tight  board 
fence  enclosed  the  yard  as  now;  and  the  slaughter 
house  was  erected  adjoining  the  kennels,  to  be 
handy;  and  thus  it  continued  until  Mr.  Hill's 
death,  when  the  Board  of  Directors  decided  to 
also  enclose  a  well-shaded  space  in  the  rear  of  the 
kennel,  with  a  wire  fence,  to  give  fresh  air,  shade, 
exercise,  and  comfort  to  the  pack  in  hot  weather; 
and  this  was  done  through  the  Board's  kennel 


FOX    HUNTING.  125 

committee;  the  present  wire  enclosure  being  the 
result,  and  has  proven  most  advantageous  during 
the  last  summer.  Colonel  Morrell  heartily  con- 
curred in  this  improvement  upon  his  taking  his 
position  as  Master  of  Hounds,  and  at  his  instance 
a  further  necessary  improvement  was  made  by  the 
addition  of  a  puppy  kennel  and  yard,  which  has 
been  long  needed. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

DIFFICULTIES    IN    HUNTING    FIELD. 

Anyone  reading  the  published  accounts  of 
fox  hunts  in  this  part  of  the  country  can  form  no 
idea  of  the  pleasure  in  the  sport  or  the  difficulties 
attending  it.  A  thorough  familiarity  with  farm 
lands  or  wooded  sections  along  the  public  roads 
is  of  very  little  good  to  you  in  a  ride  across 
country,  where  every  feature  of  the  landscape  is 
so  entirely  changed  that  one  appears  to  be  in  a 
strange  land,  and  you  are  soon  likely  to  be  lost 
from  hounds  and  companions  and  bewildered  as  to 
locations.  But,  the  question  is  asked  by  the  un- 
initiated, why  cannot  the  hunter  follow  with  his 
horse  directly  after  the  hounds  and  not  get  lost? 
He  might,  if  the  fox  would  keep  to  the  open 
country,  and  you  had  a  horse  that  could  take  every 
division  fence,  with  endurance  enough  to  last  with 
the  hounds,  up  hill  and  down,  and  with  fleetness 


126  FOX    HUNTING. 

enough  to  stay  with  them;  and  then  you  had  suffi- 
cient grit  in  yourself  to  stick  to  it.  But  quite  all 
this  no  fox  hunter  has  ever  been  known  to  have 
in  a  long,  fast,  hard  run,  kept  up  for  hours;  and 
he  must  occasionally  cut  to  keep  in  the  hunt. 
Then,  another  difficulty,  the  fox  will  not  keep  to 
the  open  country,  and  you  are  soon  confronted 
with  a  tract  of  woodland  filled  with  a  thick  growth 
of  underbrush,  to  ride  through  which  faster  than 
a  walk, — if  you  are  not  torn  from  the  saddle,  or  do 
not  have  your  eyes,  face,  hands,  and  clothes  torn, 
and  your  hat  or  cap  gone,  you  are  lucky.  Still 
more,  in  approaching  this  thicket  you  find  a  mass 
of  green  briars  through  which  it  is  impossible  to 
force  your  horse  to  get  to  the  fence  separating 
you  from  the  wood;  and  as  if  this  were  not  enough, 
over  the  fence  gracefully  dangles  innumerable 
grape  vines  with  hangman  nooses  ready  to  slip 
over  your  neck  and  suspend  you  from  the  saddle. 
If  you  have  hunted  the  country  before  and  know 
a  wood  road  through  this  labyrinth,  you  are  likely 
to  ride  to  it;  and  if  you  do  not  know  such  a  way 
you  will  think  discretion  the  better  part  of  valor 
and  ride  around  the  wood  tract,  seeking  a  better 
riding  course.  In  the  meantime  the  fox  and 
hounds  have  gone  through  this  barrier,  in  your 
way,  and  you  are  fortunate  if  they  have  not  turned 
in  an  opposite  direction  from  the  one  you  take  to 


FOX    HUNTING.  I27 

get  in  with  them.  Then  another  Httle  trouble  may 
confront  you  in  this  county,  with  its  five  large 
streams  of  water  running  through  it,  and  its  many 
mill  powers.  The  fox,  hard  driven,  has  taken  to 
a  mill  dam,  or  to  the  broad,  deep  creek,  swimming 
through  the  water  or  crossing  on  ice,  not  strong 
enough  to  bear  your  horse;  so,  rather  than  risk 
losing  your  valuable  animal,  and  perhaps  your  own 
life,  you  ride  for  a  bridgeway  or  ford;  and  when 
you  have  safely  crossed, — where  are  your  fox  and 
hounds?  You  must  ride  hard,  listen,  and  find  out 
by  the  best  judgment  you  can  exercise.  Wind 
splitting  steep  hills,  broken  rocky  sections  of 
ground,  marshy  meadows,  a  slippery  hillside,  or  a 
barbed  wire  stretched  on  the  top  of  a  line  fence, 
and  such  trifling  obstacles,  are  also  likely  to  be 
in  your  path.  Still,  it  is  a  glorious  sport,  and 
these  difficulties  only  add  zest  and  excitement  to 
it,  and  make  a  man  of  the  rider. 

The  use  of  huntsmen,  assistant  huntsmen, 
and  whippers-in  undoubtedly  creates  a  reliance  on 
these  employes,  on  the  part  of  the  hunters,  to  keep 
them  in  touch  with  the  hounds.  But  it  sometimes 
happens  that  even  these  trained  hunters  get 
knocked  out  in  our  hilly  country,  and  any  fox 
hunter  who  will  be  frank  with  you  will  admit  that 
he  has  been  knocked  out  in  his  hunts  oftener  than 
is  pleasant  to  own  up  to. 


128  FOX    HUNTING. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THOSE    WHO    FOLLOW    THE    CLUB    HOUNDS    NOW. 

Among  the  active  and  good  riders  who  now 
follow  the  Rose  Tree  hounds  are  the  Master  of 
Hounds,  Colonel  Edward  Morrell;  Carroll  Smyth, 
Harrison  K.  Caner,  Henry  R.  Hatfield,  J.  Howard 
Lewis  Jr.,  Simon  Delbert  Jr.,  William  A.  Stotes- 
bury,  Ivan  Fox,  William  ,M.  Kerr,  John  H. 
Hawkins,  Alfred  L.  Hawkins,  E.  Shirley  Borden, 
Emanuel  Hey,  Edward  B.  Chase,  Walter  T.  Roach, 
H.  Percival  Glendinning,  Edward  Crozer,  George 
R.  Fox,  Irwin  N,  Megargee,  Victor  J.  Petry, 
Ernest  R.  Yarnall,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Schoff,  Dr.  J. 
N.  Risley,  and  others. 

There  are  several  lady  riders  who  sometimes 
follow  the  hounds,  and  among  these  are  Mrs.  M. 
and  Mrs.  R.,  both  excellent  and  fearless  riders 
who  take  the  fences  with  the  best  of  them. 

OTHER    CLUBS    AND    HUNTS    IN    THE    COUNTY. 

There  are  two  other  organized  hunting  clubs 
in  Delaware  County,  the  Radnor  and  the  Lima; 
and  several  other  hunts,  the  Elwood  Powell,  of 
Springfield  township;  the  Pinkerton,  of  Edgmont 
township;  the  Hickman,  on  the  edge  of  Chester 
County;  the  Speakman,  of  Chadd's  Ford;  and  the 


FOX    HUNTING.  I29 

Stewart,  of  Chester  city,  each  having  from  fifteen 
to  twenty  hounds. 

These  ckibs  and  hunts  all  use  American 
hounds. 

Charles  E.  Mather,  M.  F.  H.,  of  the  Radnor 
Club,  maintains  a  pack  of  English  hounds  at  his 
farm  near  the  Brandywine,  in  Chester  County. 


POPULARITY     OF     THE     ROSE     TREE     FOX 
HUNTING    CLUB. 

Many  of  its  members  do  not  ride  with  the 
hounds,  but  get  their  pleasures  from  the  club's 
annual  races  and  its  monthly  meetings  and 
suppers. 

The  long-continued,  popular,  and  successful 
existence  of  this  club  is  largely  due  to  the  good 
fellowship  in  it,  and  to  the  social  disposition  of  the 
members,  and  their  kindly  treatment  of  each  other, 
as  well  as  to  the  liberality  and  pleasure  exhibited  in 
entertaining,  and  in  the  cordial  manner  in  which 
the  club  receives  strangers  and  guests,  freeing 
them  of  restraint  by  the  hearty  welcome  given. 
And  to  these  may  be  added  the  indisposition  of 
members  to  depart  from  old  traditions  or  to  per- 
mit any  innovations  or  new  rules  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  club  to  creep  in  that  would  mar  the 
harmony  existing  among  its  members.      Absence 


130  FOX    HUNTING. 

of  conventionality,  and  a  firm  adherence  to  the 
well  established  characteristics  of  the  club,  and  to 
the  old  rural  form  of  entertainment,  both  in  the 
dining-room  and  in  the  club  house,  will  keep  the 
membership  full  and  preserve  the  popularity  of 
the  club  for  years  to  come. 


Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary  Medicine 

Cummings  School  of  Veterinary  Medicine  at 

Tufts  University 

200  Westboro  Road 

North  Grafton,  MA  01536 


